


Binary

by NorthernGhost



Series: Living Systems [2]
Category: Horizon: Zero Dawn (Video Game)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-17
Updated: 2019-07-15
Packaged: 2019-09-20 23:51:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 31
Words: 174,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17032299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NorthernGhost/pseuds/NorthernGhost
Summary: At the end of her life, Elisabet Sobeck shared an inexplicable bond with the Nora huntress Aloy that allowed her to experience the future she had worked so hard to secure, as well as allow the young woman to see the past in a way no one in her time could even hope to. Once the final events at GAIA Prime had occurred, both women believed this had come to an end; however, some bonds cannot be broken, even after death.





	1. Death is Not Defeat

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone, and welcome to the sequel to Duality!
> 
> I kept pretty tight-lipped about the fact that there would be more to this story, so I guess since the cat's out of the bag, so to speak, I might as well explain some things.
> 
> This is a direct sequel to the first fic, and no, you're not crazy, some things are very different here. There's a new perspective in the narration, which brings some very different storytelling elements, other than the obvious shift in use of pronouns.
> 
> There's also another major point that I want to lay out now: this is actually the second part in a planned three part series. Yes, you read that right. There are **_three_** parts to this story. Now, I know Duality was a pretty hefty length (40 chapters isn't exactly short) and therefore took a great deal of time to post, but my plan with the sequel(s) is that the chapters will generally trend on the longer side, therefore: longer chapters each Monday, but fewer total. Time will tell if I regret this and change my mind.
> 
> That being said, I hope you enjoy this as much as the first one, even though it is rather different, and if you haven't read Duality, you can check it out as part of the newly-christened _Living Systems_ series. This will probably make a lot more sense if you've read that.
> 
> Anyway, I think that's it for the first week. I won't keep you longer before the first chapter.
> 
> Welcome to Binary. Enjoy the ride.

The feeling of grass, the warmth of sunlight, the sound of leaves rustling overhead, and the arctic-tinged wind that blew across the open ground felt all so familiar and inviting and yet… so foreign at the same time. Time must have passed, but the sunlight seemed as strong as ever, making it hard to tell exactly how much. Only the telltale feeling that the shadows cast by the large rock formation in the center of the meadowlands had grown longer gave a hint that it may have been sometime in the early afternoon.  


How long had I been sitting here?  


A thousand years?  


An hour?  


Both?  


A shiver ran down my spine as the cold wind hit me from the right side, once again, immediately raising goosebumps on my arms as my hands instinctually ran up and down them. Why did I expect there to be something different there? Something… soft? Some kind of fabric? No, this tunic I had put on earlier didn’t have sleeves, I knew that. Right?  


Or was it metal I expected to find?  


Like wearing a machine.  


A second, synthetic skin.  


Wait… what was that word?  


The picture of tranquility on display across the open, flat ground of the meadowlands seemed so at odds with the energy charging every fiber of my being. The hair on my arms and the back of my neck stood straight, almost as if an electrical current was coursing across my skin and up through each individual strand. The energy seemed to run out of places to go once it reached my hands, leaving a strange tingling sensation in my fingertips as I tried my best to keep them still, but with little success.  


Why was it so hard?  


Nothing had changed in an hour.  


Before that… well…  


All at once, the soreness across my shoulders and down my spine, as well as the ache in the joints of my legs, made itself painfully aware, further confirming that even though I couldn’t remember how long I had been sitting against this tree, it must have been a while. Images of a stone bench and a strange, wooden structure flashed before my eyes and I quickly closed them, throwing myself into darkness. I squeezed the muscles tighter until the darkness gave way to bright, flashing patterns that seemed to reform each time they disappeared and reappeared.  


At first glance, the structure felt imposing, dark, unfamiliar… but just as soon as those feelings had appeared, a sensation of warmth spread throughout my chest. It felt almost like… home? No, that couldn’t be right. Home was made of wood, too, but it wasn’t in a wide open field like that, it was in the mountains. Memories of snow and rocky passes immediately flooded in, replacing those of the unknown structure and I inhaled deeply through my nose, drawing in the scent of the dirt, the grass, and the indeterminate one that seemed borne on the wind that told me winter wasn’t too far away.  


But had it just passed or was it yet to come?  


“ _Who cares?_ ”  


With one last firm squeeze of my eyelids, I opened them, only to find myself momentarily blinded by both the bright sunlight and the flashing patterns lingering from closing them so tightly moments ago. As I blinked repeatedly, the light began to fade to a more manageable level, revealing the wide open expanse of greenery before me, although something new had appeared in the distance.  


A shining, metallic object had materialized from behind the rock formation several hundred yards ahead, a bright blue light attached to the end of a long, slender neck seemingly aimed directly at me for a moment before it turned away. The Watcher continued along its route, either unable to detect me from this distance or deeming me not enough of a threat to warrant further investigation. Its plodding footsteps were just barely audible above the sound of the wind, the leaves, and the babbling stream between it and myself, but I could almost hear the whir and clank of its inner machinery in my head, the sounds some I had grown intimately familiar with over the years.  


All thanks to… what was his name?  


My heart rate began to accelerate as I scrambled to recall the name that had suddenly slipped from my grasp. I could clearly picture his face and hear his voice, but… what did I call him? Father? No, that wasn’t right. He almost was, but… not quite.  


“ _Rost._ ”  


A shaky sigh escaped my lips as I ran my hands over my eyes, pressing the heels of my palms into them with a gentle force as my eyelids slid closed, once again, plunging me into darkness.  


How could I forget that?  


A sharp, shooting pain appeared in my right shoulder blade and I groaned, arching my back as I absentmindedly tried to rub the offending spot against the slender trunk of the tree behind me, but it only helped so much.  


“ _You can’t sit here all day._ ”  


“I know, I know…” I muttered under my breath, letting my hands fall into my lap, once again.  


The aches only seemed to spread farther from the original point in my shoulder blade as I took a deep breath, bracing myself to get to my feet. As soon as I stretched my legs out from their previously bent position, however, I quickly realized that I wasn’t going to be standing for at least a few moments. A grimace creased my face as I rubbed at my legs from my knees to the tops of my shins, as if it would potentially help resume the bloodflow. As my feet faded to numbness and then slowly began to regain feeling with an uncomfortably prickly sensation, I grit my teeth and forced myself to push past it all.  


I gripped the tree with more force than I wanted to admit as I used it to help drag myself to a standing position, my footing unsteady for a moment before I felt the full strength flow back through my legs. As I paced back and forth, making sure everything was back to normal, I spared a glance toward the imposing, wooden wall nearby. The fortified barrier constructed from tree trunks lashed together and buried partially in the ground certainly cast a formidable figure, although I suppose that was half the point. I had seen them uphold the other half of their purpose when a group of rabid machines, led by a skittering, seemingly demonic Corruptor had attempted to breach them and kill everyone inside Mother’s Watch.  


“ _All because of me._ ”  


I shook my head, slowing to a stop as I pressed my hands firmly against the sides of my head, applying pressure against my temples in an attempt to force the thought of my mind.  


“ _You have no way of knowing that, for sure._ ”  


With a heavy sigh, I let my hands fall to my sides as I glanced toward the wall, once again, to find several of the guards along its top looking my direction. As soon as they noticed my gaze, they quickly looked away, beginning to patrol in the opposite direction, although I caught one of them sparing a glance over his shoulder toward me one last time before resuming his conversation with his partner beside him.  


I couldn’t necessarily blame them for not wanting to meet my gaze, though; I’d be a little scared to look myself in the eyes right then, too.  


Motion at the foot of the wall caught my eye and I glanced down to see a figure just stepping out of the main gate. Although the image of the grey, fur-lined clothing and bright splash of blue across the dark skin of his face immediately seemed familiar, I also found his name escaping me for the moment, although the overwhelming feeling that I didn’t want to talk to him right then was unmistakable. A moment later, our eyes met and I found my lips pulling into a thin line, my fingers instinctually curling into fists for a moment before relaxing.  


“ _Sorry, Varl… maybe later._ ”  


Before he could approach, I spun on my heel and set out along the dirt path beside me. I forced myself to keep my attention straight ahead, despite the urge to glance over my shoulder being almost too great to resist. My feet led me along, almost of their own accord, as the scenery seemed to pass in one large blur. Reds, yellows, greens, browns, and blues all swirled together before suddenly seeming to snap into place as I came to a stop at a fork in the road.  


One path led off to the left, across a small footbridge, and then up a hill into the trees beyond. The other continued on ahead, seemingly leading farther along the outskirts of the sparse forest to my right. I couldn’t easily see where either path led, and for a moment I found my heart beat pounding in my ears as the realization that I didn’t actually know where I was came over me, but it quickly passed as my eyes fell on a sign painted on a nearby rock.  


“ _I came from Mother’s Watch, and Mother’s Cradle is that way, so…_ ”  


I slowly turned in place before coming to a stop facing the trees only a few yards from the dirt path I had been following. A feeling somewhere between familiarity and full-fledged déjà vu came over me as I felt compelled to continue straight ahead, off the worn path. As soon as I crossed the threshold into the wooded area, an image flashed before my eyes and I came to a stop, blinking rapidly.  


“ _What was that?_ ”  


I struggled to recall what I had seen, but only vague impressions came back to me. I remembered an overwhelmingly brown landscape, many of the trees fallen and splintered on the ground, while the few that remained standing had been entirely barren of leaves. In fact, the entire scene had felt devoid of life, not simply because it had been an oddly still image, but something told me there was no way anything could survive in that version of the woods.  


“Not now…”  


My voice came out as more of a whine than I had intended as I buried my head in my hands, shaking it slowly.  


“You need to clear your head. Focus on… something other than yourself.”  


As my hands pulled away from my face, I noticed the tremble in my fingers and I clenched them into fists, squeezing until my knuckles turned white. As I relaxed them, once again, I could feel strength and steadiness taking hold. Several deep breaths later, the tremors had stopped and I let my hands fall by my sides, once again.  


“Now, why did you come here?”  


My eyes swept the landscape before me, but nothing seemed to immediately jump out at me as a distinct reason for feeling so compelled to leave the path and not continue on to Mother’s Cradle. The only notable feature nearby was a cluster of boulders seemingly dumped in the middle of the trees, so I turned to head toward them, my steps much less determined as I felt my shoulders finally sag with a release of the tension that I didn’t know I had been holding.  


When I finally reached the large rocks, I raised one hand to run along the cool, mossy surface of the largest one, my path taking me around it as I absentmindedly glanced around at the patches of sunlight filtering through the canopy overhead to the grassy underbrush below. A strange feeling came over me and I happened to glance down just a moment before I went to step into empty air. A cry of surprise escaped my lips as I wavered in place for a moment before staggering back a step or two, keeping one hand on the boulder beside me for support.  


I took a second or two to collect myself before slowly stepping forward, staring down at the dark chasm that seemed to open out of nowhere in the middle of the ground. At first, it just seemed to be a large hole in the ground, perhaps created by heavy rains collapsing the ceiling of an underground cavern, but as I crouched down at the edge and squinted into the dark recesses below, I could just make out something distinctly unnatural at the bottom.  


“ _It almost looks…_ ”  


My eyes widened slightly as the end of my train of thought seemed to slip out of my mouth barely louder than a whisper.  


“…man made.”  


“ _The ruins from when I was a child. When I found…_ ”  


My hand instinctually reached toward my right ear, my fingertips coming into contact with the small metal trinket affixed just above the hinge of my jaw, at the far end of my cheekbone. Immediately, a web of blue and purple lines appeared around me, accompanied by a distinctly synthetic chime in my ear. Almost immediately, several small, bright points of light appeared, overlaid on the image of the ground before me, despite not having seen anything there a moment ago.  


“ _Inside the bunker…?_ ”  


Before I had a chance to think my actions through, I found myself hopping into the hole in the ground, making my way down the staircase-like series of rocks and outcroppings jutting from the chasm walls until I came to a stop at the edge of a small underground spring. With a frown, I glanced across the water, noting that the bright shapes my Focus had highlighted appeared to now be straight ahead of me.  


“Guess I’m going to have to get wet…”  


With one last glance up toward the light of the opening overhead, I took a deep breath and dove forward into the water. The shock of the cold that immediately soaked through my clothing nearly forced the air from my lungs, but I managed to contain my reaction and power on, trying to make sure each stroke in the water counted so that I could reach the entrance as soon as possible. A few moments later, my hand hit something hard and dry and I came to a stop, lifting my head to find myself at the entrance to the bunker, a feeling of déjà vu washing over me from all those years ago.  


As soon as I was out of the water, I ran my hands up and down my arms, my teeth already chattering. I shook my head, hearing the sounds of the water droplets flinging from the ends of my hair onto the rocky surfaces around me with a soft pattering. Once I had managed to shake as much water off my body as I could, I focused on the entrance to the bunker ahead.  


“Maybe there’s something new I can find, now…”  


“ _Or maybe not but it’s something else to care about right now._ ”  


I grit my teeth at the intrusive thoughts before pressing on farther into the underground facility. It wasn’t long before I came upon the narrow, rocky entrance that opened into the cavernous room beyond that I remembered from when I had first entered the bunker all those years ago. As I stood up straight, slowly coming to a stop at the slim, metal fencing that overlooked the lower area of the room, the scene before me seemed to change.  


One moment, it was as I remembered: overgrown with moss and the floor covered in an inch or two of standing water, but the next everything seemed to go back into its right place, the metallic surfaces gleaming without signs of rust or natural growth, the light filling the room no longer the warm glow of sunlight leaking through holes in the ceiling, but harsh and bright from synthetic sources overhead.  


I staggered back a step or two only for the image to return to normal. My heart beat was beginning to sound in my ears as I rubbed my eyes with one hand, shaking my head slowly as I did.  


“ _It’s like… those times I… saw that facility… I was really there. Was I really here, too? I feel like… I must have been._ ”  


As I opened my eyes, I let out a small yelp of surprise at the sight of a person walking up the nearby set of stairs toward me. They were immediately unfamiliar, but when I finally noticed the clothing, it fully dawned on me why they seemed so strange. It was distinctly not made from furs and scavenged machine parts, but instead it appeared to be a T-shirt and jeans.  


“ _Wait… what?_ ”  


“Dr. Sobeck, this is a surprise.”  


The sound of the figure’s voice caused me to jump, once again, as my eyes snapped into focus, only to find the figure had disappeared. I whirled around, scanning the entire room, but I was as alone as I had been moments ago.  


“What the hell…?”  


“I can’t say we expected such a visit, but it’s an honor.”  


My head snapped around toward the stairs to find the figure standing only a few feet away, one hand held toward me. The first instinct that gripped me was to jump away and assume a defensive position, but instead I found my own hand extending toward the figure’s.  


“I was in the neighborhood, so I thought why not?”  


The sound of my own voice reached my ears, but the words most definitely had not come from my mouth. At least, not of my own choice.  


“Is there an occasion we can attribute this to, or at least a reason?”  


“Afraid that I’ll catch you in the act of something?”  


I clenched my jaw, suddenly realizing that my mouth had actually moved that time. My lips drew into a thin line as I watched my hand fall to my side, once again.  


“No, no, but… well, I wouldn’t expect you to just stop in to say ‘hi.’”  


The figure laughed as I was finally able to wrestle my gaze away from him, instead managing to focus on my own feet. As I did, my eyes widened. The clothing I had been wearing moments ago seemed to have been swapped out for my more typical outfit of a grey sweater and a pair of dark jeans. Wait. That also didn’t feel right…  


“Well, I actually kind of am.”  


The sound of my own voice drew my attention once again, prompting me to lift my head, taking in the image of the figure, once again, but this time he seemed superimposed over the imagery of the ruined bunker, rather than in the pristine, fully operational vision he had inhabited, previously.  


“Oh… well…”  


With one more blink, the figure disappeared, casting the room into the sort of stillness and silence that I had only seen in the ruins of the Old Ones. The feeling that the world was standing still, holding its breath, was something I had experienced before, but this time there seemed to be something else. It almost felt like time had somehow managed to come to a halt. If not that drastic, something was at least very wrong with it.  


“I wish it didn’t have to be that feeling…”  


The words came out of my mouth seemingly of their own accord, but barely louder than a whisper. Why did they feel so familiar, yet… there was no way I had spoken to that man I had just seen. He was one of the Old Ones, a thousand years old at best. And yet… he seemed so familiar. He certainly seemed to know me.  


“ _No, not you…_ ”  


Her? No, that felt wrong. He had been speaking right to me, I had seen it.  


“ _But you don’t remember it, so how could it have been you?_ ”  


If it wasn’t me, then…  


I shook my head, pressing the palms of my hands against my temples. The world suddenly felt like it was spinning and my balance began to waver, but I grit my teeth and focused on a particular post in the railing running along the edge of the raised platform where I stood. A few moments later, the feeling passed and I slowly took my hands away from my head.  


“ _Breathe. Think. What did you come here to look for, exactly?_ ”  


I reached toward the Focus next to my right ear and the familiar web of blue and purple lines appeared, once again. Along with the field projected over the world around me, the glowing objects I had seen from above a minute ago still shone ahead of me. 

When I tried to hone in on any one of them, in particular, the Focus informed me that I was still too far away to fully determine what they were, only that it had “Located a Signal.”  


“Well, what the hell does that mean?”  


I had seen something similar when I was near a Tallneck, the purple circles radiating out from the central point seemingly indicating that something was still active at that location, but this was a bunker buried in the ground, left on its own for a thousand years. What could possibly be down here that was emitting a signal?  


“ _You did find this Focus here…_ ”  


I bit my lower lip for a moment before taking a deep breath and striding purposefully toward the stairs to the water-logged floor below. The splashes that accompanied each footstep seemed to ring forever in the large, open space, each reflection growing more distorted and altered with each repeat. For a moment, I almost swore I could hear another pair of footsteps behind mine and I spun in place, one hand reaching behind me toward the bow slung across my torso, but the room was as empty as it had been this entire time.  


“ _Gotta stop jumping at every little sound down here._ ”  


With a deep breath, I turned and slipped through the narrow opening between the large pair of doors in the center of the room, finding myself in a much dimmer room beyond. The space also felt familiar, but this time the memories tied to it weren’t drenched in artificial light and shining metal. Instead, everything seemed to be much shorter and possibly even more run down than the last time I had seen it.  


“ _You were a child, you know._ ”  


A smirk tugged at my lips as I pressed on through the room, moving toward the door on the far side. As I stepped into the hallway beyond, I found it much darker than the previous rooms and blinked rapidly until my eyes had adjusted, at least somewhat. Just as I was beginning to be able to make out the shapes of the rocky formations blocking the doorway to my right, I thought I could just make out the shape of a figure beyond them, but as soon as I blinked, the silhouette disappeared. I shook my head, closing my eyes for a moment before opening them as a heavy sigh escaped my lips.  


Almost immediately, something else seemed to be off with the hallway, but it took me a moment to realize what it was. Lights had appeared at the far end, near where I thought I had seen a figure a moment ago. As I focused in on the small point of bright light, it began to spread along the hallway, until images of interfaces seemed to overlay the dark, decrepit husks that had once been workstations and other types of equipment. I spun in place, noticing how the lights had spread all around me, lighting up over old desks back in the room I had just left, as well as farther along the hallway to the left.  


“What the…?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we've only just begun. Hopefully you'll come along for the rest. See you next Monday.


	2. Old Doubts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still with me after last week? I said this sequel would be quite the different animal, but... yeah. If you're down for the ride, come along. Also, if you have any questions as the story goes on, feel free to ask them in the comments! I've been trying to do my best to respond to them and answer as best I can without giving the story away right at the beginning.
> 
> Anyhow, merry Christmas (eve) to all those who celebrate it! To everyone else (and the Christmas-ers, as well) happy Monday.
> 
> I brought a gift, regardless.
> 
> It's a new chapter.
> 
> Not much of a surprise, but... well, I still hope all of you like it.

I cautiously began to move forward, the hair on the back of my neck standing up straight as I slowly reached for the bow across my back. Within seconds, it was held at the ready before me, an arrow silently nocked against the string, the feathered end held carefully in place between my fingers. By the time I reached the door to the nearby stairs, the lights had not disappeared, but nothing else had appeared, either. No new figures out of the corners of my eyes, and no sounds other than my own footsteps and heavy breathing.  


I carefully tapped the side of my Focus, bringing the interface to life, once again. The highlighted shapes I had been seeking this entire time appeared to be above me, so I made my way up the short set of metal stairs ahead. The hallway on the floor above was just as dark as the one below, but the colorful lights began to spread here, too, popping to life as my eyes passed over each ancient piece of technology. The path to my left was blocked by a collapsed ceiling, so I was forced to turn right and head toward a door at the far end with the faintest hints of natural light spilling through it.  


The feeling of unease didn’t lessen as I approached the open doorway, my fingers constantly readjusting their position around the bowstring and arrow in my hand. When I finally reached the opening and stepped into the room beyond, an explosion of light suddenly seemed to appear around me and I turned my head away, squinting my ears nearly closed, as well. Finally, once I felt like I could see again, I turned back to the room at large and nearly dropped the bow and arrow at my feet.  


The room was lit up around the outer edges with the screens for brightly-lit workstations that shouldn’t have been working. The images on them seemed clear enough to be fully functional, but as I focused on one of them closer to me, I realized that the information on it seemed to be repeating over and over, without actually displaying anything new. It was like everything was stuck repeating the same few seconds in time over and over again.  


As my eyes moved from the bright screens around the edges of the room, they fell on the still form of the long-dead corpse in the center of the circular space, an opening in the ceiling overhead allowing a pool of bright sunlight to illuminate it, almost as if nature itself were trying to highlight this one figure. A moment later, a chill shot down my spine as I thought I saw something move near the body, but I shook my head, gripping the wood of my bow more tightly.  


“Just paranoid, don’t be so—”  


My self-reassurances were cut off as I turned back to the corpse to find that its head now seemed to be turned toward me. I froze in place, eyes widening as I desperately tried to recall whether its head had been turned this way a moment ago. I slowly began to step to the right, but the head seemed to turn to follow me.  


“ _Not real, not real not—_ ”  


“What makes you think you saved anything the first time?”  


The voice sent daggers of ice straight into my heart, an audible gasp escaping my lips as I finally dropped the bow and arrow in my hands, the wooden constructions clattering against the hard, metal floor. Its sound was like several voices combined, all of them just dissonant enough with each other to instill an immediate desire to get as far away from it as possible.  


“Look around and all you see is death.”  


“Stop it! This isn’t real! You can’t talk!”  


“You never wanted to listen.”  


The faint sounds of whispers played in my ears as I held my hands over them, shaking my head slowly.  


“No, stop it, snap out of it, y-you’re… you’re dreaming. You’ve gotta be. You fell asleep against that tree…”  


“What difference does time make?”  


My knees suddenly felt unable to support my weight and I found myself staggering backwards until I hit a hard surface and I slowly sank to the floor, using what I assumed to be the wall to help slow my descent. Finally, when I reached a sitting position, I pulled my knees in close to my chest, wrapping my arms around them and burying my face in the soft leather and furs of my skirt.  


“This isn’t real. You’re not crazy. Stay calm.”  


“How many times can you convince yourself of an idea before the lie becomes truth?”  


Suddenly, before I was even fully aware what I was doing, I burst forward, swiping the bow and arrow off the ground before me and drawing the string back. A moment later the arrow landed in the corpse’s skull, tearing the head off the body and sending it rolling away into the shadows of a nearby bench. My chest heaved with ragged, gasping breaths as I remained frozen in place, hands and arms still holding an invisible arrow at the ready. Finally, my muscles seemed to come back under my control and I lowered my arms, holding the bow loosely before me as my eyes remained fixed on the now headless corpse in the center of the pool of light.  


The lights of the various displays around the room continued to dance in their endless loop of numbers, words, and on some of them moving images as I slowly rose to my feet, slinging the bow across my torso, once again. I moved to an opening in the metal railing just in front of the door and hopped the short distance down to the lowered area, where the corpse lay. The sound of splashing water echoed around the room as I glanced down at the rippling surface around my boots.  


For a moment, something about my reflection seemed off, despite it being distorted by the ripples still moving across the surface. I could have sworn I could make out shorter hair and grey clothing that was distinctly not what I was currently wearing, but the same blue circle on the outside of the Focus shone next to the ear of the reflection. A moment later, I blinked and I saw the familiar tanned leather and furs accented by red and blue trimmings, along with the tip of my spear sticking out over one shoulder.  


A shiver ran down my spine as I looked away from the water’s surface and slowly made my way toward the pool of sunlight in the center of the room. This is where I had first found this odd, triangular device, affixed to the skull that I had just shot off moments ago. A grimace came over my features as I stared down at the nub of bone from the top of the corpse’s spine protruding from the partially-shredded neck. No pool of blood was forming, as it had most likely dried up long ago.  


I carefully stepped over the body and made my way toward where I had seen the skull roll moments ago. It took a few moments of searching but I finally located it as I crouched down before one of the benches and saw the brightly-colored feathers at the end of the arrow amidst the darkness. I carefully made sure to grab the wooden shaft of the arrow before pulling it toward me. The skull still lodged on the tip of it felt heavier than I expected, which only served to well up a feeling of nausea in my stomach. As I dragged the disembodied piece of the cadaver from its hiding place, I stared down at the empty eye sockets and the mouth left hanging open, seemingly in a wordless cry.  


“Not so talkative now, huh?”  


With a smirk, I braced my boot on the side of the skull and pulled on the arrow with a sudden, severe tug. As the projectile came free, I felt the bones crack slightly beneath my foot and I quickly hopped away, an uncontrollable shiver running down my spine. For a second, I could have sworn I saw bright red blood pouring from the arrow wound and the empty neck portion, but one blink later and it was gone. Just a skull barely covered in thin, grayed skin.  


“You weren’t worth the waste of an arrow, anyway.”  


“Why waste a single arrow on a single person when you can let so many die without lifting a finger?”  


The voice seemed even louder now, and for a moment I felt paralyzed, my hand gripping the wooden shaft of the arrow tightly. Finally, I forced my muscles back under control as I stepped forward, raising my foot before driving my heel down on the skull. A sickening crunch echoed around the room, followed by the clattering of small pieces of bone across the parts of the metallic floor that weren’t covered in water.  


My chest heaved with each breath for several long moments before I slowly lifted my foot, allowing myself a spare glance at the now-shattered pieces of bone that had previously been the skull moments ago.  


“That’s enough from you.”  


I glanced at the tip of the arrow for a moment before dipping it in a nearby puddle and shaking the droplets off. As I slid it back in the quiver with the others, my eyes caught one of the screens nearby and something on it prevented me from looking away. This particular display appeared to be showing a short loop of a moving image. All I could make out from this side was the outline of a figure, but something about the silhouette drew me closer, moving my feet without my mind being fully aware of what I was doing until I was rounding the edge of the bench.  


As the display came into view, truly, I froze in place, my eyes locked on the main square in the center that contained the looping video. The image in the center seemed to be of me, but… not. Something was off. After several long moments, I realized what was happening. The clothes weren’t any I had ever worn, or seen, outside of very specific settings.  


“Elisabet…”  


The image was so much younger than any I had ever seen, which only made me realize how much exactly alike we looked. She didn’t have the short, neat haircut that I had seen so many times in the various images and… recently. Instead, her hair seemed to fall just below her shoulders, although the top layer seemed to be pulled back and held in place behind her head. The repeating image showed her turning to look at something over her shoulder and beginning to speak, but just before I could make out what words she may have been saying, the image reset to the beginning, with her facing away.  


“She looks so… different…”  


Something compelled me to look at the ground by my feet, my eyes catching the image of my reflection in the puddle there. The face in that image was the same as in the electronic recording, but everything around it seemed so much different. My hands instinctually reached toward my hair, my fingers running over the tight braids and the colorful beads and ribbons used to tie them all in place. My gaze slowly drifted back to the electronic image before me, eyes fixing on the young, red-haired woman in it.  


“ _This… the place in this image… it’s… I know it…_ ”  


As I tried to place the background, words suddenly seemed to appear on my tongue, the sound of my voice raspy as they slipped out.  


“Carnegie-Mellon.”  


“ _What? Where is that? What is it?_ ”  


I squeezed my eyes shut, once again, slowly shaking my head as I staggered backwards a step or two.  


You were never there.  


“ _Was I?_ ”  


Where even is “there?”  


“ _I was so young._ ”  


Aren’t I now?  


“ _I don’t even know anymore._ ”  


I forced my eyes open as I took in a deep, gasping breath, clenching my hands into fists at my sides. With my jaw set, my eyes bored through the image on the display, attempting to use nothing but my will to force my thoughts back into place.  


Elisabet Sobeck was one of the Old Ones. Somehow, I had seen her life and, at the end of it, been a part of it. We had both used each other for knowledge, and she was… helping, yeah that seems right… helping me solve whatever was going on with the cultists who wanted me dead. The Eclipse… and their buried demon. Hades. It had a name similar to something I had heard and seen in her world. She seemed to be making some kind of connection to it. That video… the one of the computer woman, GAIA, that confirmed it. GAIA was something, someone perhaps, that Elisabet created, and she was talking about Hades being… a subfunction? It… tried to kill her—and everything else—but she stopped it.  


“ _But now it’s back._ ”  


Right, so that was a problem.  


So what was the next step?  


I moved from behind the screen showing the image of the young Elisabet and stepped into the center of the room, once again. My gaze travelled over the other displays as I slowly began to realize that most of them had moving images on them, many showing a particular woman in them. In addition to the all-too similar face in all of them, I began to recognize other things in the background, as well. One had the large, machine-like orb that I remembered from the office at the Zero Dawn facility, another was the main floor just below the office in the same facility, and another seemed to be a large, flat open area with a human-like machine standing in the center of it. I quickly realized that in the last one, what I had first thought was some kind of machine was actually a person wearing an intricate metal armor of the Old Ones and memories of standing in a hazy, brown world while breathing stale air provided by a device in the head-piece of the same suit came back to me and I shivered, running my hands up and down my arms rapidly.  


Suddenly, as my eyes fell on the last display to my left before the ledge that led up to the door out of this large, circular room, I froze in place. It showed the image of the older, worn down Elisabet in a soft, red top and a pair of stained, blue leggings talking to a woman with dark skin sporting a bright blue scarf wrapped around her head. There had been no sound in the room other than the water sloshing around my feet or slowly dripping somewhere in the distance up until this point, but as I stared at the moving image of the two women, I swore I could hear voices faintly growing louder.  


“Copy everything, don’t just transfer it, like I said in the message. If you can, get it on an external backup, as well.”  


“Any reason why?”  


“Just… trust me, please.”  


“Okay.”  


“Samina…”  


The word left my lips just as I noticed my hand passing through the image of the two women, particularly over the woman with the scarf as I blinked in surprise, glancing around. Somehow I had ended up at the desk where I had seen the display moments ago, although I had no memory of actually choosing to walk over here. I turned back to the image, my hand stuck halfway through the image, with no sense of actually touching anything other than the empty air.  


My hand slowly fell by my side, once again as I glanced at the familiar face of the woman I had been reaching toward a moment ago.  


“ _Samina._ ”  


That was her name. I had met her. She… didn’t entirely trust me, at first, but…  


The feeling of something warm in the corner of my eye prompted me to quickly reach toward it, running my fingers underneath my eyelid to find them wet with a single, warm tear. I wiped it away before doing the same on the other side, as well.  


Why did that happen? All of the Old Ones died off, I knew that.  


“ _You cried about Elisabet dying, though._ ”  


I heaved a heavy sigh as I hung my head, idly swirling one boot in the shallow puddle I was standing in and watching the ripples spread across its surface.  


“ _You need to sort your shit out, kid._ ”  


Confusion suddenly creased my face as I physically recoiled slightly. Where did that phrase come from? It sounded familiar, but I had never said it, as far as I knew. But then why did it come so easily?  


The image of two women in a large field flashed before my eyes and I instantly felt a splitting headache shoot across my forehead and back through my scalp. With a groan, I pressed one palm flat against the center of my forehead and closed my eyes.  


Something had changed today, but also… it felt like it had always been this way.  


“Staying here isn’t going to do you any good,” I muttered, slowly opening my eyes and letting my hand fall by my side.  


As I locked eyes with the image of Samina, once again, the connection between the voices I had heard a minute ago suddenly seemed to fall into place and my breathing began to quicken.  


“A backup…”  


The Zero Dawn facility. Another copy… of everything.  


Where was it again?  


“Sunfall…”  


With a groan, I leaned my head back, looking up at the ceiling as I braced my hands on my hips.  


“The Eclipse’s home territory. Perfect.”  


As I looked back down from the ceiling, I found the room much darker than before. It took me by surprise, but it also took me a few moments to realize what had actually changed: the displays had disappeared. The bright, moving lights had been replaced by the still, dark shadows of the abandoned, mostly-destroyed facility I remembered from when I had fallen down here all those years ago.  


I slowly turned in place, making sure that all of them had truly gone, leaving everything as it should have been. Once I had determined this was the case, I found myself facing the door out of the room, on the far side from where I had entered.  


“ _You’ve got some kind of goal, now. Time to figure out how you’re going to do it._ ”  


With a deep breath of the damp, musty air of the bunker, I strode forward, crossing the open ground and climbing up before the door. The rest of the trek through the bunker brought me through the twisting hallways full of the similarly dried and long-dead corpses that I remembered from when I was a child. I couldn’t bear to listen to their last recordings this time, though. As I finally exited out of the opening where Rost had found me the first time, I almost imagined that he was there, once again.  


With a pang of sadness, I blinked slowly, but when my eyes reopened, the figure was still there. Something between confusion and panic came over me as I paused mid-step, staring up at the dark silhouette above me. The figure seemed to be wearing a similar set of furs and armor as Rost had, although upon closer inspection, this shadowy image seemed to be much slimmer. A strip of tightly braided hair stood down the center of his head, and as my eyes travelled below it I could just make out a splash of blue amidst the darkness shrouding his face. My initial caution gave way to… something else. Fear? Nervousness? But why, exactly?  


As I stepped onto the end of a long beam of metal that seemed to have once been a part of the ceiling, the figure finally moved, kneeling beside the edge of the opening.  


“Something told me I’d find you here.”  


I ground my teeth for a moment as I stared back up at Varl, a smirk set into his features.  


“You following me around, now?”  


“Call it concern, Aloy.”  


With a sigh, I began to climb out of the hole into the bunker, ignoring his offered hand as I pulled myself up onto the grassy surface, once again.  


“I think I’d call it more ‘asked to keep _The Anointed_ safe.’”  


His amused expression immediately soured, his jaw clenching as he rose to his feet, as well.  


“I’m perfectly capable of handling myself.”  


“It wasn’t my idea, Aloy—”  


“But you went along with it.”  


“It’s hard to say no to the High Matriarchs.”  


“Really? I find it pretty easy.”  


He continued to regard me with an unamused expression as I couldn’t help the gloating feeling in my chest. With a heavy sigh, I placed my hands against my lower back and leaned into them, feeling several small pops as I did.  


“Are you okay?”  


I regarded him with a strange expression as I stood normally, letting my hands fall to my sides.  


“What do you mean?”  


“I mean… I saw you sitting against that tree for—however long that was—after whatever you saw in All Mother Mountain. Did… no, I shouldn’t ask what you saw or heard in there.”  


His expression betrayed his intense internal struggle, bringing a slight frown to my lips.  


“Why?”  


“Because—it’s not for my eyes or ears.”  


“Why not?”  


“Because the door opened for you, and no one else,” he finally said, his voice much more severe than it had been this entire time. “That has to mean something.”  


My jaw instinctually began to work, softly chewing the inner part of my cheek. There were so many things at the tip of my tongue that I wanted to say, but… none of them would help anyone, right then.  


“What if it doesn’t?”  


He seemed entirely taken aback by this answer, eyes widening as he physically took a step backward, quickly glancing down to make sure he wasn’t too close to the edge of the hole in the ground before moving a step or two to the side.  


“After everything you’ve done so far… how can you say that?”  


“I haven’t changed, Varl,” I shot back. “All of this—me—”  


I gestured to my person from head to toe.  


“—is still the same person who walked into Mother’s Heart from the wilderness hoping to win the Proving.”  


Varl sighed heavily, rubbing his eyes with one hand.  


“I don’t want to argue with you about who you are, and who you may be becoming,” he said quietly. “I just know there’s something different about you than any other person I’ve ever met.”  


A strange twinge shot through my chest as my fingers instinctually curled into fists before slowly relaxing, although I could feel the tremors in them, already. There was so much more to that statement than he could ever realize… and more than he would ever know, if I had anything to say about it. For now, at least.  


“ _Would you ever tell him?_ ”  


My jaw clenched tightly as I took a sharp breath in through my nose, letting it out as a heavy sigh.  


“So, I’m alive and well. Mission accomplished?”  


He regarded me with an odd look for a moment before clearing his throat.  


“While I’m not exactly sure what a ‘mission’ is—or where you learned that—I would guess the answer is… yes?”  


Confusion creased my face at his response. Was that really a strange word? It felt like I had known it forever.  


“ _Must have been something I heard in the facility._ ”  


“Your goal, you accomplished it, right?”  


“Oh… I-I guess so?”  


With a sigh and a roll of my eyes I glanced back in the general direction of Mother’s Watch. The sun was still high overhead, but I could feel a heaviness settling into my limbs.  


“I could use some rest. Shall we head back to Mother’s Watch?”  


“If it’s rest and relaxation you’re looking for,” Varl replied, suddenly regaining some of the amused spark he had seemingly lost in the previous conversation as a grin tugged at his lips, “Mother’s Heart would be better.”  


The idea of being around so many people all bustling about, laughing, yelling, drinking, eating… it felt so overwhelming, even without setting foot in the settlement. He did have a point, however: Mother’s Heart was much more of a place geared for what I was looking for right then. Too bad it was also a good way's walk from here.  


“I guess you convinced me,” I sighed, kicking at a rock near my right foot and watching it bounce into the opening that led down into the bunker. “Been a while since I’ve been back.”  


“It’s… not entirely like it was at the Proving,” he said slowly, “but I’m sure there will be at least a few people happy to see you.”  


Confusion crossed my face, once again, as I looked back up at Varl.  


“The word from Mother’s Watch can’t have reached that far already, could it?”  


He laughed, shrugging.  


“Maybe, but I was more referring to one particular merchant who seemed more than happy to see you the last time you were there…”  


I felt no less confused, which only seemed to amuse Varl more.  


“Come on, let’s start walking. We should reach it by mid-afternoon at this point.”


	3. Mother's Heart

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This week it's a holiday for just about everyone: happy new year's eve!
> 
> 2018 was... a time. Personally, it started off relatively well, but took a nosedive around August.
> 
> That being said, working on this story and seeing/reading everyone's reactions to Duality and now Binary has certainly been something that keeps me looking forward to posting them each week. Since Duality was 40 chapters, that's just about 40 weeks... nearly an entire year. It didn't totally hit me how long that is until recently.
> 
> So for all of that, I thank you all and hope 2019 brings a good year for all of us.
> 
> Sorry that this chapter isn't very big or long or anything, but the pacing made the most sense to keep this one at this, because the next ones are going to be some big slabs of content.
> 
> Enjoy, all the same.
> 
> Oh, and happy Monday.

Thankfully, much of our walk passed in silence, allowing me to focus on straightening out my thoughts and bracing myself for the volume of people we may run into. If news from Mother’s Watch had already reached the other settlements, than I was sure to be in for quite the mob when we arrived.  


As my thoughts began to come back to what had transpired in the bunker, I found myself unable to focus on any of it. The sights of the wilderness around us, the bright flowers and the swaying treetops and the small wildlife that ran about the underbrush, seemed to draw my attention at every glance. As I took in the sight of two birds flying between the branches overhead, or a field of bright blue wildflowers, or even a herd of Grazers in a field below us, I couldn’t help the smile that began to tug at my lips.  


The tight, constricting feeling that had gripped my chest since the first strange vision of the man in the bunker finally felt as if it had lifted. My lungs felt like they could expand further, allowing more of the cool air to enter and filling me with a chill that was not entirely unpleasant.  


“ _You’ve walked here a thousand times, why is this so different, now?_ ”  


Maybe because it was all so different than the world in that bunker. It was all so… alive.  


Images of a world covered in a haze of brown, the very ground beneath my feet crunching as if scorched and burnt, flashed before my eyes and a strange feeling mixed in with the lightness that had come over me as we had been walking. There was a certain amount of sadness, but also… gratitude? That didn’t feel entirely right, but I couldn’t think of a better way to describe it.  


“Almost there.”  


I jumped slightly at the sound of Varl’s voice, but followed his gesture to see the wooden lodges and imposing perimeter wall rising from the side of the mountain ahead of us. Even from here, I could make out the faint wisps of smoke curling above the settlement, and I found myself already beginning to hear the sounds of people moving about, talking, laughing… but we were much too far to actually hear them, even if the ground was so open between us and them.  


Before I could say anything, my stomach grumbled loudly and I self-consciously placed one hand over it. Varl shot me a look and laughed.  


“Seems like perfect timing, too.”  


“ _Damn you,_ ” I thought, glancing down at my abdomen as I ran my hand over the leather tunic once more before letting my hand fall to my side.  


Before long, we were walking across the wooden bridge to the main front gates. Two Braves stood guard, spears held with the butt ends of the shafts resting on the ground, the wicked metal blades glistening slightly in the sunlight over their heads. Memories of them brandishing the sharp points at me the first time I had entered the settlement came flooding back and a general feeling of unease settled over me, prompting me to swallow heavily.  


Before we had even reached the guards, however, the gates began to swing open. As we reached them, the armed men simply nodded in greeting and I found myself giving an awkward head bob in return before slipping past them and following Varl through the gates. As I glanced around the open meeting area just inside the entrance, I saw several mothers with their children around the large fire in the center, the shrill voices of the highly energetic youths an immediate contrast to the relative quiet of the wilderness we had just left.  


I half expected them to see me and immediately begin whispering or clamoring about “The Anointed” or something to that effect, but no such thing happened. The mothers glanced at us for a moment, a spark of recognition in their eyes, but they simply turned back to their unruly horde a moment later without saying a word.  


“Let’s get you some food, first of all,” Varl said, nudging my arm with his elbow.  


I rolled my eyes as I tried to hide any other noises my stomach tried to make in agreement with him.  


As we passed through the dirt streets of the settlement, I couldn’t shake the feeling of how different it all felt compared to the stone streets and towering buildings of Meridian.  


“ _Maybe I’m starting to see why everyone says the Nora are such savages, after all…_ ”  


With a slight grimace, I turned away from the lodge where I had spent the night before the Proving and focused on the path leading farther up the hillside. As we went to pass a merchant’s tent with numerous wooden racks bearing articles of clothing outside it, a voice suddenly called out from farther within.  


“Are my eyes playing tricks on me?”  


Confusion creased my face as I turned to look toward the tent, once again, to find a figure appearing from within it. The thin, pale man with a similar haircut to Varl’s, but blonde, stood in front of one of the racks, a strange pattern of blue lines adorning the right side of his face.  


“Aloy, back to visit?”  


My confusion immediately waned as I recognized the soft-spoken tone of Teb and I changed course, heading toward him. As I approached, I found myself holding my arms out in anticipation of an embrace; this seemed to take him by surprise for a moment before he returned it, squeezing me timidly before stepping away, once again.  


“I had heard sightings of you back in the Embrace, once again, but I can’t say I expected to see you here,” he said, smiling softly.  


“Well… me neither, honestly.”  


He nodded slowly, his eyes flicking over my shoulder for a moment before focusing on my face, once again.  


“How have your travels been? Have you found the killers who attacked the Proving?”  


I blinked in surprise, the realization that the last any of the Nora had heard of me was setting off to find who I now knew was the Eclipse was rather jarring. It almost felt like a different world since then; a different lifetime, at least.  


“I… uh… kind of.”  


He looked confused, so I quickly tried to explain.  


“I’ve figured out who they are, but… it’s a little more complicated than we first thought.”  


Teb looked concerned, clearing his throat softly.  


“Well, at least it seems like you’re on the right path.”  


“It’s… some kind of path.”  


Silence fell over us for a moment before he coughed slightly, drawing me back into the moment.  


“That’s quite the outfit you’ve found yourself, there.”  


I glanced down at myself and realized that it wasn’t the same as the Brave tunic he had gifted me before the Proving. While similar, it sported a few “enhancements” that helped protect a little more against some of the people and machines I had come across so far.  


“Oh, yeah… I don’t remember where I got this, but… well, safe to say that I didn’t make it myself.”  


“It’s still ‘you,’ though.”  


I squirmed uncomfortably as I rubbed the back of my neck with one hand.  


“Um… thanks.”  


Sensing my response, his lips drew into a thin line and he glanced over my shoulder as he clasped his hands before him.  


“Where were you two headed?”  


“To get some food,” Varl answered, prompting me to look back at him for the first time since I had approached Teb.  


For a moment, I could have sworn I saw something like annoyance on his face, but it quickly passed as our gazes met, fading to an amused smirk.  


“Yeah, I’m pretty hungry, and Varl offered to come here so maybe I could get a break from overcooked rabbit.”  


The three of us laughed, but the mood didn’t feel entirely lightened.  


“Do you want to come with us?”  


I noticed Varl’s jaw clench for a moment, but I chose to ignore it and turned back to Teb, raising my eyebrows slightly in anticipation of his answer.  


“Sure, I can take a short break.”  


“Awesome, let’s go.”  


Both men gave me a strange look as I felt a shiver run down my spine. I didn’t like the way they were looking at me, but I also had no idea where that phrase had come from. It felt so easy, though.  


“ _You really need to watch yourself and stop saying weird stuff in front of others._ ”  


As we approached the open area with numerous long tables, many with empty benches beside them, the scent of wood smoke and cooking meat hit me and I took in a deep breath, closing my eyes as I did. A strange shiver ran down my spine and I opened my eyes, once again. As I did, I didn’t find the image of the Nora settlement, but a dark clearing with a large fire in the center of it. Other figures moved about it, and I could make out voices, but they were distinctly different than those I had heard a moment ago in Mother’s Heart.  


“ _What is going on? I thought these sort of things would stop now that…_ ”  


I swallowed the hard lump in my throat as I blinked rapidly, the image of the snow-dusted Nora buildings flashing before me several times before I found myself back at the fire in the strange, dark clearing. I spun around, turning in place to find that only darkness seemed to surround me, but as my gaze drifted upwards, I found that the black void gave way to a starry night sky. The silhouettes of trees cut into the expanse of lights, leading me to assume I was in or near a forest of some kind.  


As I turned back to the fire, I saw two of the figures near it gesturing to me, waving for me to approach. Apprehensively, I began to move forward, feeling the soft, somewhat spongy ground beneath my feet give and sink with each step while what must have been long grass brushed against my legs.  


When I was within ten yards or so of the fire, I could clearly make out the figures’ faces. I was reasonably certain I had never seen either of them before, but I couldn’t shake the feeling of familiarity. A warm, comforting feeling came over me and I couldn’t help the smile pulling at my lips.  


“ _What are you doing? Who are these people?_ ”  


“You made it!” the figure on the left, a woman with dark hair, said.  


“I told you I’ve been out here before.”  


“Yeah, it’s still hard to believe you ever leave the indoors, sometimes.”  


The two figures laughed and my smile remained unwavering, but the feeling of amusement and happiness in my chest was tempered slightly by confusion. I hadn’t meant to say anything, but it had definitely been my voice.  


The two figures were sitting on a large log a few feet from the fire, which the woman tapped beside her to indicate for me to take a seat.  


“Well, we got the fire going, but that’s it. You’re just in time.”  


As I stepped into the radius of light from the fire, I glanced down at myself and froze in place for a moment. The clothes were most definitely not what I had been wearing at… what was the name of that settlement again? The one with all the wooden buildings…  


Confusion clouded my thoughts as I shook my head, pressing the fingers of my left hand against my temple.  


“Everything okay, Lis?”  


My entire body froze rigid as I stared ahead at the base of the fire for a long moment before slowly turning to the woman to my left.  


“W-what?”  


“You look a little freaked out. Everything okay?”  


“ _Lis? No…_ ”  


Just then, I blinked and the image of the woman on the log by the fire was replaced by Varl holding a crude, metal plate toward me, a rather generous portion of meat on it. I blinked rapidly, seeing a flash of the fire in the darkened clearing again for a moment, before I cleared my throat and accepted the offered food.  


“Thanks.”  


He gave me a strange look, holding onto the plate for a moment after I had taken hold, as well, before letting go. As I pulled the plate toward me, the image of Varl was suddenly replaced with another man who looked somewhat similar, although he sported a completely shaved head and seemed… older. The next instant, Varl was back in place and looking no less concerned, so I turned away quickly, my eyes easily finding Teb just taking a seat at a table directly ahead. I quickly made my way over to him and took a seat on the same bench. He glanced over at me before noticing the plate in my hands and raising his eyebrows.  


“That’s quite the portion, Aloy.”  


“Really hungry,” I muttered, staring down at my plate as I tried to bring my trembling fingers back under control.  


Teb seemed to sense my unease and didn’t press any further, thankfully. I took a deep breath in through my nose before grabbing the protruding piece of bone from one of the cuts of meat and ripping a chunk of the tender, browned flesh off with my teeth. Immediately, the flavor of the meat flooded my mouth and I had to fight the urge to make a sound in response. My reaction didn’t go entirely unnoticed, apparently, as I heard Teb softly laughing beside me.  


“What?” I managed through a mouthful of food, glancing over at him.  


“I suppose one easily becomes used to such things as the food here when you have it almost every day.”  


I shrugged, unsure of what else to do, before swallowing the chunk of meat in my mouth.  


“Certainly beats some bare herbs and spices over thin, gamey rabbit.”  


A look of what could have been pity came over Teb’s face and I sighed.  


“Don’t give me that look.”  


“If you want some advice…”  


“I don’t need cooking lessons, Teb.”  


He leaned away defensively, although the amused grin on his face betrayed him, and I found myself unable to hold back the same expression. A moment later, the sound of someone else sitting down across from us drew my attention to find Varl with the same annoyed expression I had seen earlier, although just like then, it quickly disappeared.  


“She threaten to eat you, too?”  


“I’m not starving, Varl,” I sighed. “I do know how to hunt for myself.”  


“Your stomach would seem to say otherwise, earlier.”  


“It was just being dramatic.”  


The rest of the meal passed in a mixture of odd bouts of silence and playful banter, although I began to notice a particular pattern in Varl’s statements, particularly how they seemed almost entirely targeted at Teb. Finally, once we had finished our food, we brought the plates back to the man and the woman sitting by two large buckets of foaming water.  


“Will you be staying for the night?” Teb asked as we began to amble away from the tables and the scent of cooking meat.  


“I… don’t know,” I shrugged. “Guess I hadn’t really thought about it.”  


“I’m sure we’d be able to find accommodations for you,” Varl cut in. “I’m sure many people here would be willing to do just about anything for ‘the Anointed.’”  


My jaw instinctually clenched as I felt my fingers curl into a tight fist at my side. Teb looked confused, glancing from Varl to me.  


“Anointed? What do you mean by that?”  


Varl turned to look over at me with a grin on his face, which quickly faltered when his eyes met mine.  


“It, uh…”  


“It’s a load of bullshit heaped on by a group of people who don’t know what they saw.”  


Both men stared back at me with looks somewhere between shock and disbelief. I couldn’t blame them, really; I didn’t even understand what had just come out of my mouth. After several unbearable moments of silence, I let out a shaky sigh, forcing myself to relax my fingers at my side.  


“Sorry, I… maybe it’s best I get going, before tonight.”  


“Where will you go?”  


“ _Somewhere far away from people._ ”  


“I don’t know, yet.”  


Varl’s expression was unreadable, but Teb looked… somewhat sad.  


“That’s just become normal for me lately,” I quickly added. “I’m fine with it.”  


The soft-spoken stitcher nodded slowly, running one hand up and down the opposite upper arm.  


“I’ve got to stock up on some things and then I’ll… be on my way.”  


I spared another glance at Varl to find him now staring at me, his jaw obviously clenched tightly by the popping veins near his temples. Instead of worry or nervousness, I found a fire building in my chest, threatening to take control of my tongue, once again, but I beat it back as Teb cleared his throat and I brought my attention back to him.  


“If you have a moment before you leave, stop by my tent, will you?”  


I nodded and he gave me a small smile and a quick nod before glancing over at Varl.  


“May the goddess protect.”  


With that, he turned and walked away, heading back in the direction we had originally come from. Despite his departure, I could still feel the tension heavy in the air as I tried to sum up the will to look over at Varl, once again, let along speak to him.  


“Why do you turn your back on those who look up to you?”  


I immediately recoiled, eyes widening slightly as my mind tried to fully process his demand. The shock quickly gave way to the burning rage as this time I was unable to hold it back and I could feel the words spilling out of me before I had a moment to think them through.  


“You mean the ones who turned their backs on me for years? Treated me like I was less than a person? Refused to speak to me and threw stones at me? Your sister knew better to see through all of that, but clearly that mindset isn’t shared throughout the family.”  


Almost as soon as the last words had left my mouth, I felt the fire in me disappear, extinguished with an icy feeling that came with memories of the Proving: the snow kicked up by the weapons of the Eclipse, the image of Varl’s sister, Vala, falling to the ground as the same weapons tore a red mist from her torso, the man built like a mountain, himself, who had nearly killed me until…  


“Well, it certainly seems you’ve gotten used to being in the wilds, then,” Varl said quietly, although I could see how tightly his hands were clenched into fists at his sides. “I hope you find what you need for your journey.”  


With that, he brushed past me, his shoulder bumping into mine, despite there being plenty of room for him to pass by without any contact. For a moment, I saw the image of my hands driving a spear into his back, and I quickly shut my eyes, shaking my head slowly until it disappeared. Once I opened my eyes again, I didn’t look after him or make any attempt to stop him, just listened to his footsteps slowly retreating into the distance, their sound swallowed up by the general hum of activity in Mother’s Heart. Finally, I was able to force myself to take several deep breaths before straightening my posture and proceeding farther along the path we had been taking out of the eating area.


	4. All Roads Lead to Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Monday y'all.
> 
> Also, fun fact, this past weekend was my birthday, and I'm posting this chapter from a friend's apartment in New York City! What a whirlwind it's been.
> 
> Sorry for the delay in the time of posting, but here it is.
> 
> It's much longer than the previous chapter.

As I passed by the various log houses on the way up the winding path, the raucous sounds of celebration from the night of the Proving rang faintly in my ears. Everything back then had felt so overwhelming, but there had been the nagging feeling that I should enjoy it all. I had wanted to stop being an outcast since I was a child, after all. Now, though, I couldn’t wait to get out of the settlement.  


The wilderness didn’t ask hard questions about my emotions, my motivations, or my beliefs, it just… existed, and let me do the same.  


Finally, I came to a small bridge leading over a stream and spotted the reason I had come this way, in the first place. A small merchant setup stood to the right of the path ahead, complete with several tables full of equipment and various odds and ends. A simple backdrop of tanned leather hung from a wooden frame behind the longest of the tables, providing a back “wall” to the booth. A figure was currently turned away from me, hunched over the far table as he messed with something on it, but I immediately recognized his form.  


At the sound of my approaching footsteps, the figure glanced over his shoulder before pulling a double take and standing up straight.  


“I cannot say that this is a sight I thought I would behold, again.”  


“Good to see you, too, Karst,” I shot back, sarcasm thick in my tone.  


“The Nora outcast no more… back in Mother’s Heart. The last I heard you were off chasing the killers who attacked the Proving.”  


By now I had come to a stop before him, placing my hands on my hips as I sighed heavily.  


“To some extent, I still am,” I replied, “it’s just… more complicated than I or… any of us… first thought.”  


Karst regarded me with a strange look for a moment before clearing his throat and clapping his hands before him.  


“Well, something tells me you didn’t stop by just for the conversation,” he said, a smirk tugging at one corner of his lips.  


“You’d be right.”  


“What can I interest you in today, then?”  


After trading for the usual arrows and materials needed to upgrade them with some specialty modifications, something on the table behind him caught my eye and I leaned around him to try to see it. He glanced back and laughed quietly before grabbing the pack of arrows off the table and holding it before him so I could see it.  


“You ever seen tearblast arrows before, Aloy?”  


I shook my head, staring down at the strange contraptions in his hand. The arrows seemed to be fixed with some kind of metal cylinder near the tip, although I couldn’t immediately see what purpose this served.  


“These little canisters here aren’t made with the idea of dealing a killing blow, necessarily,” he explained, gesturing to the mysterious cylinders, “however they do pack quite a punch.”  


“What do they do, then?”  


“Much like the name suggests, they blast and tear components off of machines.”  


Karst carefully slid one of the arrows out of the binding and held it toward me, allowing me to take it and turn it over in my fingers. It felt surprisingly light for being weighed down slightly more than normal at one end.  


“The charge at the tip is activated by impact, so be careful not to jab yourself with one, or anything right next to you.”  


I reached toward my bow and raised my eyebrows slightly, waiting for his answer.  


“Try one out… not on me, preferably.”  


I rolled my eyes as I slid the bow from over my shoulders and nocked the arrow. My eyes found a nearby tree that was still a good ten yards or so away, so I drew the string back and took aim. As soon as the arrow hit the rough bark of the trunk, a strange, mechanical sound filled the air, building in intensity until suddenly the tree seemed to explode with a loud blast.  


I jumped slightly in surprise before examining the arrow’s handiwork. The trunk had splintered, leaving the entire tree precariously close to falling over. After a few more seconds, cracking sounds began to emit from it before the top tilted backward and crashed to the ground. I glanced around to see two Braves watching from a distance, less than impressed expressions on their faces. With a smirk, I turned back to Karst.  


“I love it.”  


“I don’t know why I would have expected anything less.”  


“How much?”  


“Your first pack? Take it.”  


He held out the banded pack of arrows, a smirk on his face, as well. I took them from his grasp, glancing over the remaining eleven arrows before stashing them safely with the other ammunition, taking extra care to keep the explosive tips facing away from accidentally jabbing anything.  


“So, how does it feel being a Nora Brave, finally?”  


My expression must have said enough because Karst immediately winced, recoiling slightly as he quickly sought to change the subject.  


“Y-you, uh, got your freedom, though.”  


With a heavy sigh, I nodded slowly.  


“Yeah, I suppose so.”  


“Enjoy it.”  


Confusion crossed my face as my head tilted to one side slightly.  


“You’ve been given the chances to see things that almost no other Nora has had the chance to, at least not without being unable to return to open arms.”  


He had a point. Being made a Seeker and let out into the world to chase down mysteries that only seemed to lead farther and farther down a path that I thought would have been answered when I found whatever was inside All Mother Mountain had its advantages, but…  


Images of a woman with dark skin in a bright, flowing dress standing in front of what appeared to be a field of stars flashed before my eyes and I quickly reached up to rub them with my fingers.  


“Yeah, it’s… something.”  


A moment of tense silence followed before I sighed and looked back up at Karst.  


“Thank you for the supplies. I need to get going, though.”  


“Well, if you ever find yourself back this way, feel free to stop by. I feel we will always have more business to discuss.”  


“If things keep going the way they have, I’ll definitely be needing arrows.”  


“May the goddess protect.”  


A strange shiver ran down my spine as I simply nodded in response, my lips pulling into a thin line.  


“ _If only any of them knew who she really was._ ”  


Right, they might as well have thought I was All Mother, for all intents and purposes.  


“ _Aloy, the Goddess… now there’s a thought._ ”  


With a smirk, I set off back through Mother’s Heart, largely avoiding eye contact with anyone I passed. Luckily, I didn’t run into any familiar faces, or any who thought they knew me, before I reached Teb’s tent. As before, he wasn’t standing outside, so I cautiously ventured closer to the opening in the leather curtains ahead.  


“Teb?”  


The sound of shuffling from inside the shelter sounded before the slender, pale man appeared from within, a warm smile on his face.  


“Aloy, I’m glad you stopped by.”  


“I said I would, didn’t I?”  


“True, but…”  


The momentary flash of what I could only think to call sadness across his face told me more than anything he could have said, even as he tried to cover it up with a smile, once again, but this one felt much more forced.  


“This must mean you’re leaving already, though.”  


“All of this,” I said, gesturing to the settlement at large, “isn’t really… for me, I think.”  


“I shouldn’t have expected that these walls could tame such a wild spirit,” Teb remarked, his smile starting to feel more genuine, once again.  


“You make me sound like some kind of wild animal.”  


“A force of nature, at the least.”  


I squirmed uncomfortably on the spot, unsure of how to respond, so I simply nodded slowly, running the nail of my thumb along the bow string where it pressed against my shoulder.  


“While I may not have quite the skill for useful items as the blacksmiths or the weapons merchants, I did want to give you something that I thought may still be useful.”  


I raised my eyebrows as he smirked and slid back into his tent. A moment later, he reappeared holding what seemed to be a lump of fur. At first I thought it was some kind of animal, but as he held it toward me, he let it unfurl in his hands, revealing it to be some kind of cloak. Almost immediately, the image of the darkened fur leading to a leather crest adorned with bright red and blue stitching on one side and what appeared to be a metal shoulder-guard on the other brought back memories of a tall, broad man with a long, braided beard.  


“It should help keep you warm, as winter hasn’t fully left the mountains.”  


I knew it should have been Teb’s voice, but I only heard the deep baritone that had dominated my childhood. As I took a step forward, I found my bottom lip threatening to quiver, and I immediately bit down on it, not hard enough to draw blood, but enough that I could feel the sting from my teeth. My hands slowly closed around the soft clothing, taking it from Teb’s grasp; it was just light enough that it wouldn’t be much of a hindrance when travelling, but felt hefty enough to provide adequate warmth against the cold.  


“I… remembered the man who raised you, who was there when… when you saved me, all those years ago. I… thought this seemed fitting as a memory.”  


“It is,” I said quickly, internally berating myself for how biting my tone felt. “Thank you, Teb, sincerely. I… I’ll treasure it.”  


I finally tore my eyes from the garb to look over at him, finding the fully genuine smile that had first adorned his face when I had arrived back in place.  


“I also incorporated a bit of your own style into it.”  


He gestured to the stitched leather crest and I took a closer look. At first, I had simply noticed the colors matched the beads and accents from the Brave outfit he had given me before the Proving, but now that he pointed it out specifically, I noticed that they formed a particular pattern. The red and blue stitches seemed to show a flame rising from some kind of peak, presumably a mountain.  


“The fire on the mountain, refusing to be extinguished.”  


“You make me sound like some kind of legend.”  


“You were the only one to survive the slaughter, and then you become appointed a Seeker and set out into the wilds beyond the Embrace to track down the very people who nearly killed you. I’d say that’s the start of a legend that the Nora will tell for a time to come.”  


I frowned as I carefully folded the cloak into a neat square before looking up at Teb, once again.  


“I’m still alive, Teb. Aren’t most legends dead, or—you know—not real?”  


“What’s wrong with having a living legend?”  


I shot him a look and he began to laugh.  


“Something to think about, then.”  


“Yeah, maybe…”  


When his laughter finally died down, it left us in silence for several long moments before I finally sighed.  


“I really should be—”  


“Going, of course.”  


My mouth hung open for a moment or two after the interruption before I closed it, nodding.  


“The world won’t sort itself out on its own, I suppose.”  


“That would make my life easier, wouldn’t it?”  


We both laughed as I glanced down at the cloak in my hands before looking back up at Teb and holding it aloft slightly.  


“Thank you, truly.”  


“Like I said, I may not be able to contribute much, but I felt like I couldn’t leave you with nothing.”  


I simply nodded in response, giving a small smile, as well.  


“May the goddess protect, Aloy.”  


“Happy trails, Teb.”  


A confused expression came over him as I internally panicked for a moment. Where had I heard that before?  


“ _The recording at GAIA Prime…_ ”  


“That’s… an interesting expression,” he remarked, “but… I think I like it. Is that from the Carja?”  


“Not quite.”  


He regarded me with a curious expression for a moment before shaking his head.  


“I don’t think I will ever understand the life you live.”  


“ _You don’t even know the half of it._ ”  


“Sometimes, I don’t think I do, either.”  


Before I made my way toward the main gate, Teb and I exchanged a brief embrace and a final set of goodbyes. With the cloak safely stored with my bedroll, I exited Mother’s Heart, once again receiving simple nods from the guards outside. Thankfully, I had seen no sign of Varl since he had stormed off earlier, and he was not waiting outside.  


“ _Don’t need his emo bullshit anyway._ ”  


The thought that I had no idea where that phrase came from sent shivers down my spine, but I tried to maintain my posture as I crossed the bridge leading out of the settlement and entered the open ground of the Embrace, once again. By this point, the sun was just barely hanging above the mountains ahead of me, prompting me to squint as I followed the path more or less directly into it. Thankfully, the blinding light was hidden by the canopy of a large tree as I came to a stop beneath it, rubbing my eyes with the heels of my hands.  


Coming to Mother’s Heart had been… not the best of ideas. Something told me Varl wouldn’t be seeking out my company anytime soon, though, so at least I wouldn’t have to worry about him suggesting it, again.  


“ _Take stock. Think. What’s the next step?_ ”  


I took a deep breath through my nose and let it out as a heavy sigh, turning so my back was resting against the tree trunk. All Mother Mountain had seemed like it would be the end goal, but… we knew better now. We? No, just me. _I_ knew better. Who else was in this “we?”  


“ _The one you shared lives with for the past month or so?_ ”  


Oh, right. She wasn’t around anymore, though, right? I had… well, I knew she was dying. Going to die. Did die. I watched the recording about it. It was long ago.  


“ _Didn’t stop you from wishing she wasn’t, though._ ”  


I slowly blinked, only to find the image of the large boulders ahead of me replaced with a brightly-lit, metal hallway.  


“ _No… these were supposed to end. How could this still be happening? I died. There shouldn’t be apocalypse bunkers in the afterlife._ ”  


Wait… _I_ died? No, that… was somewhat right? How does someone “sort of” die?  


Another blink, and a figure appeared in the hallway before me. It was a man with dark skin and no hair. He was familiar, but… I couldn’t remember a name.  


“You did everything you could, but…”  


The man’s voice took me by surprise. Why couldn’t I remember his name?  


“Why did you have to leave me with all these people… just to die before we truly finished anything?”  


Charles. That was his name. What kind of name was that, though?  


“I hope you got some bloody peace, because I sure as hell didn’t.”  


“I saved you!”  


The words came tumbling from my mouth before I could even realize what I was saying.  


“I did everything I could…”  


“Maybe that just wasn’t enough.”  


“I gave everything…”  


Despite the raging fire in my chest, I could feel my eyes growing watery, the hot tears stinging as they stubbornly clung to the corners of my eyelids.  


“ _Even myself._ ”  


But I didn’t. How would I be here if I had?  


GAIA.  


That’s why.  


I raised one hand before me, staring listlessly at the back of it for a moment or two before turning it over to reveal my palm. For a moment, the small nicks, scars, and callouses seemed missing, replaced with much smoother, pinker flesh. One blink later, though, and it was all back to normal.  


The woman who had lived in the metal facilities all those years ago… was the same as the girl from the wilds of a future the former could have never imagined.  


Or the other way around? I didn’t know.  


“ _You’re losing track. Focus._ ”  


A moment later, I blinked rapidly, looking around at the open meadowlands around me, bathed in the warm, golden light of the late afternoon sun. Each shadow stretched longer than the original thing that had created it, the general shape distorted slightly by this transformation until simple things such as trees seemed to take on an otherworldly shape.  


“ _Look at you, the poet._ ”  


Poet? Oh, like a writer. I hadn’t really gotten into…  


No, stop. I was getting distracted again.  


“ _You went to GAIA Prime. It’s destroyed. You went to All Mother Mountain, Eleuthia-something-or-other. It was broken because… APOLLO was missing. You found a message, from a dying machine. GAIA. She made you. You have a purpose to…_ ”  


To do what?  


The answer seemed simple, but the thought of how to actually execute it seemed beyond impossible.  


“ _She made you to save the world._ ”  


No pressure.  


I’d done it once before. Sort of.  


Wait, had I?  


No, not me. _Her._  


“ _She’s not here to do it all for you._ ”  


That was a shame, too, because getting into Sunfall without her confidence in taking down the Eclipse network was going to be a huge pain. It also meant I was probably going to have to call on one of the last people I wanted to ask for help.  


“ _He did somewhat help you get into All Mother Mountain._ ”  


No, I had done that without him. He had just been mad that he hadn’t been able to track me after Elisabet blocked his Focus. Sylens certainly had been interested in what I had found inside the Eleuthia facility, though.  


“Sylens?”  


The gentle sounds of the leaves rustling overhead and the general wilderness nearby quickly swallowed up the sound of my voice, leaving it almost as if I had never spoken, after all. Finally, when the familiar, deep voice hadn’t appeared in my ear, I sighed, leaning my head back against the tree trunk behind me for a moment.  


“Shouldn’t have guessed that would work, but… oh well…”  


With a sigh, I finally pushed myself away from the tree, groaning as I stretched my back and feeling it pop several times.  


“ _Got too used to the warmth near Meridian, did you?_ ”  


With a smirk, I turned away from Mother’s Heart and began to set out farther into the Embrace.  


I followed the various dirt paths in what I thought was the general direction of the main gate, but I didn’t make any strong effort to find the shortest one. The sun was still a decent ways above the mountains, so I had a little more time to wander in peace before night fell.  


The overwhelming feeling that everything I was seeing was familiar, yet somehow changed, hung over me, but I couldn’t decide if it was simply because I hadn’t been here in quite a while, or if it was due to something else. Before long, I found the ground around me coated in a thin layer of snow and confusion crossed my face. I glanced around for a moment before quickly realizing the path I had evidently been following this entire time.  


“Oh…”  


I didn’t turn around, though, but pressed on, walking with more of a sense of purpose. Finally, I came to a large rock wall beside a stream that sprayed quite a bit of chilled mist in to the air, the sounds of the churning water immediately bringing back memories of a different time. Everything had seemed so much taller back then.  


The climb up the rock face didn’t take long, as the handholds I remembered from years ago still seemed to be in place, allowing a simple ascent. When I reached the top, I took a moment to glance back at the view of the valley below, long shadows from the mountains finally starting to stretch across the open ground as the orange orb in the sky sank below the mountains across from me.  


“ _I stood here how many times looking at this sight?_ ”  


With a heavy sigh, I turned and began to make my way farther up the somewhat treacherous path ahead, taking care to not lose my footing and fall the twenty or thirty feet down to the rocky stream below. Soon, the path widened and I found steep rock walls rising on either side of me, the one to the right leading up to the peak of the mountain. My steps slowed as I began to climb the step-like rock formations, each one coated in a perfect, white sheet of snow. No one else had been up here recently. Why would they?  


Just as I began to reach a small bend in the path, the sight of a wooden fence came into view and I let out a shuddering sigh, my hands clenching into fists by my sides. For a moment, I expected to see a small wisp of smoke rising from the chimney on the roof of the large, wooden structure behind it, but everything was just as still as it should have been. No signs of life, except for me.  


My gaze moved from the fence to the path ahead of me, coming to rest on a large, stone tablet that seemed to have been artificially erected in place, as its position was distinctly not one that would happen at random in nature. I approached the stone slab and slowly reached out toward the snow-covered surface. The white powder was freezing to the touch, immediately sending shivers shooting up my arm and down my spine, but I ignored them as I quickly brushed the stone surface clean.  


As the snow fell away, it revealed a spiraling pattern that had been carved into the rock, clearly by a human. A small smile tugged at my lips as I took a step back, admiring the simple monument. It was exactly as he would have wanted: no extravagance, no excess, just the simplest form to express its intent. I slowly reached toward my right ear, shivering once again as the cold skin of my fingertips brushed against my cheek.  


“Don’t need him listening in,” I muttered, removing the Focus from place and carefully placing it on a rock nearby before stepping forward and kneeling down before the carved stone. “Hey, Rost…”  


Silence fell over the scene as I suddenly found myself unable to form any words. There was something I was going to say, but… whatever it was, I had lost it. Finally, I let out a heavy sigh, hanging my head as I squeezed my eyes closed for a moment. Finally, when I opened them and took a deep breath, the words seemed to start pouring out of me.  


“So… I… I went in the mountain. Do you remember the night before the Proving… the final lesson you taught me? You said I needed to serve a purpose bigger than myself. Well… it couldn’t get much bigger. It’s the same purpose that drove… the woman who came before me—Elisabet—and the machine she created… GAIA. One she—I—they—were willing to…die for.”  


Images of a barren, dusty field and a dark, wooden structure in the distance flashed before my eyes and I sucked in a sharp breath.  


“I… I thought I was going to understand more… after going into All Mother Mountain, after Maker’s End, after the mountain that fell—GAIA Prime, after…”  


My palms felt slick as I quickly rubbed them against my skirt, the furs chilly to the touch.  


“After experiencing whatever strange connection I had with Elisabet… well, I guess maybe I have an idea, now. You didn’t know it, but… guess you raised a piece of history, reincarnate. I always wanted to know who my mother was, and… well, the answer isn’t so easy. Maybe you knew that whole time… sensed it… but… you were still so much more to me than…”  


Whatever words had been about to come next felt caught in my throat as I closed my eyes, inhaling deeply through my nose.  


“Well, about that… that purpose… yeah, I’ll do it… give myself to that. For Elisabet… and GAIA… and for you. I owe it to all of you.”  


With a heavy sigh, I opened my eyes, staring down at the snow-covered rocks before me.  


“I’ve got… quite the journey ahead, I think. I’ll use everything you taught me, but… sometimes I worry that won’t be enough. Guess I’ll… let you know the next time I’m back this way… or somewhere else.”  


As I lifted my head to look up at the carved stone, I swore I could almost feel a heavy hand on my shoulder and I instinctually reached toward it, but only found the empty air above me. With a heavy sigh, I rose to my feet and backed away a step or two, still staring at the monument to Rost.  


“Until next time.”  


With that, I crouched down and grabbed my Focus, once again, replacing it in its usual place alongside my ear. The interface immediately sprung to life, casting the web of bright purple lines over the natural scenery around me. Immediately, my eyes found the main task that still sat on the main section of the display: “Enter All Mother Mountain/Eleuthia.”  


“ _That feels like so long ago, now…_ ”  


I closed the Focus interface and began to trudge up the stone pathway to the gate in the crude wooden fence ahead. Stepping through it seemed to transport me back to the past, but I quickly realized that it was two very different moments. Part of it was the pang of sadness that came with memories of my childhood here, but the other… was something different. Wonderment, surprise, shock, discovery… I had been older, but… why did these memories feel so odd?  


The image of my hands grasping two fistfuls of snow as I stared up at a brilliant, multi-colored sunrise as the vague sounds of what could have been laughter or sobs reached my ears, before all of it seemed to disappear, replaced with the actual image of the dark hut before me.  


“Maybe coming here wasn’t the best idea,” I muttered, but a glance up at the sky overhead told me that night had truly fallen while I had been distracted. “On the other hand, sleeping out in the snow doesn’t sound so great, either.”  


With that, I pushed on toward the door to the hut, gently pulling it open once I reached it. The interior was even darker than outside, but the pale light that came somewhere between the sun and the moon provided just enough to make out the shapes of a table and some chairs off to the right. I paused in the doorway, glancing off to the right before frowning slightly.  


“Hope there’s still some wood left to burn, here.”  


I made my way to the end of the wooden platform attached to the front of the hut and glanced around the side of the building. Much to my relief, I found a short pile of cut wood stacked against the wall. I hopped off the platform and gathered as many pieces as I could carry before carefully making my way back to the front door. For a moment, I worried I wasn’t going to be able to get the door open with my arms full, but I managed to wedge the tip of my foot into the crack between the door and the frame and pull it open after only a few seconds of struggle. As I stepped inside, I unceremoniously dumped the pile of wood just inside the door with a clatter loud enough to cause me to wince at its sound. Once the sound had dissipated and no wild animals that had decided to take up residence in the hut had charged me, I grabbed one of the logs and propped it in front of the door, holding it open and allowing at least some light inside.  


Everything was just as I remembered it from the morning after I had been made a Seeker. A pile of furs and a thin cushion made from stuffing a long, leather bedroll with feathers lay against the wall to the left, all of it left in a form of disarray.  


“ _Guess I had been a little preoccupied that time…_ ”  


I grabbed several of the logs I had brought from outside and moved over to the fireplace just past the table. The charred remnants of a previous fire still sat in the stone structure, so I simply pulled them out and shoved them aside. Once the new logs were in place, along with a patch of small twigs that I had stripped from a thin, leaf-less tree just outside, I carefully held a small piece of rock in one hand and an arrow in the other. Several unsuccessful strikes followed before I finally was able to create several sparks from striking the metal tip across the rock. Not long after, I had managed to create enough that the small twigs finally caught fire. Within another minute or two, the beginnings of the fire were underway.  


With a heavy sigh, I replaced the rock and the arrow in their appropriate pouches and held my hands before the flames. The warmth the small blaze was already giving off felt great against my reddened hands, slowly bringing feeling back to the tips of my fingers, as well. As the fire grew, it cast more light around the small hut, until I was finally able to see the entire room.  


I hopped to my feet and quickly removed the log before the door, allowing it to swing closed and keep as much of the heat inside the building, as I could. My gaze slowly swept around the room, taking in the details I had been unable to make out in the darkness, before. Another bed was set up in a loft-like area at the back, a simple wooden ladder that had been lashed to one of the poles supporting said loft providing the only means up or down from it. A small smile tugged at my lips as memories of my old bunk came trickling back, but they were immediately cancelled out by the heavy feeling in my chest that came with seeing the bed on the floor beneath the loft. It was simple in construction and decoration, only sporting a single, dark-furred blanket draped over its length. Compared to the bedroll on the floor, this one was made up neatly and carefully.  


“I couldn’t dare touch it… still can’t.”  


With a heavy sigh, I turned away from the beds, my gaze falling on the table beside me. As I did, I noticed something on the side of the top section facing me. I stepped forward, my brow furrowing in confusion as I ran my thumb over the strange, dark stain that had caught my attention.  


“Where did this come from? It almost looks like…”  


Suddenly, my eyes widened as my hand moved from the table to run over my left forearm reflexively. Four distinct points along it burned slightly under the palm of my hand, but the feeling quickly passed as I pulled it away and looked closer to find no obvious signs of injury.  


“The first vision…”  


A shiver ran from the back of my neck all the way down my spine as I turned away from the table. Almost immediately, I began to feel the fatigue in my limbs from earlier return, but this time several times stronger. A yawn forced its way past my lips and I rubbed my hands over my face several times as I made my way toward the bedroll and blanket on the far side of the room.  


Within a matter of minutes, I was sitting on the soft bedding, the blanket draped around me as I held it closed at the front, the warmth of the fire washing over my face and soaking into the furs held in my grasp. With a deep sigh, I found my eyes sliding closed. I forced them open, once again, as I carefully balled my usual bedroll into a pillow at one end of the bedding and laid out on top of it, taking care to make sure the fur blanket fully covered me from neck to toes.  


“ _What a day…_ ”  


Bathed in the warmth and the comforting glow of the fire, I closed my eyes and quickly found myself slipping into unconsciousness. I guess I was more tired than I had thought.


	5. Familiar Feelings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy monday, y'all.
> 
> So if you've been following along with this story so far, better strap in because we're about to veer off the broken path.
> 
> Despite that, I hope y'all are still enjoying this story. It's been a blast to write, for me, so far, so I hope at least some of that interest and enthusiasm makes it through.
> 
> Oh, and if something seems kind of like a mistake in the writing, there's a good chance it actually isn't. So yeah, but feel free to let me know if it just ends up making no sense overall.
> 
> In the words of the famous Samuel L. Jackson, "hold onto your butts."

Not long after closing my eyes, I slowly found them opening again, although the scene before me was not one of the inside of the crude, wooden hut. Instead, I found myself staring at a small wooden table while three red numbers hung in the air before me. Confusion came over me as I blinked several more times, trying to clear my vision somewhat, until I could finally make out that the glowing characters weren’t simply suspended in air, but were in fact being displayed on the front of a small, tan box.  


As I continued to stare at the device, they suddenly changed to an entirely new set. Along with this sudden change, a loud, grating sound split the air, causing me to jump in surprise, flailing wildly for a moment before sitting bolt upright and looking around for signs of a machine bearing down on me, my hand instinctually reaching beside me for… something, but it only found a soft, fabric surface.  


As I took stock of my surroundings, realizing that nothing seemed to pose an immediate threat, I glanced down toward my hand to find it resting on top of a blanket, although this one was not made of fur and tanned leather as the one I had fallen asleep under. This appeared to be stitched together from woven fabric. I ran my hand over its surface for a moment, feeling how soft to the touch it was, before turning my attention back to the bleating alarm sound that still filled the air.  


As I glanced back toward the device with the glowing numbers, I noticed several buttons on top of it. I poked each of them until the sound finally stopped, casting the room into silence, once again. With a heavy sigh of relief, I ran one hand back through my hair and cast the blanket aside. The room didn’t immediately seem familiar, but had a general feeling of home that was… comforting. My bare feet touched the ground, finding the rug beside the bed somewhat warm to the touch.  


As I glanced down at the fabric surface below me, I noticed something else seemed off. The tanned leather leggings I had fallen asleep in had been replaced with a pair made of a soft, fuzzy fabric. A strange pattern made up of multi-colored rectangles separated by black lines covered the surface of the clothing, providing a somewhat dizzying effect as I tried to trace all of them with my eyes. Similarly, my tunic had been replaced with a dark green top made out of some kind of soft fabric that seemed to cling to me like a second skin, although it stretched rather well as I pulled at it.  


“ _Although not entirely unpleasant, what is going on here?_ ”  


The entire room was rather well lit through sunlight streaming through several windows spaced about the walls, providing a clear view of the furniture and decorations. Much of it looked similar to things I had seen in Meridian, such as in Olin’s apartment, but something seemed off about a lot of it. I rose to my feet and crossed the open space to the tall, wooden piece of furniture across from the foot of the bed; it came up to roughly chest-height and seemed to have several handles fixed to what I could only assume were drawers.  


I pulled the top one out to find an assortment of clothing inside, a wide variety of colors and designs on display even as I glanced over it quickly. With a short “huh” I pushed it closed and glanced at the items on top of the dresser. Several images of people within small, wooden frames sat on display, and one on the right-hand side immediately caught my attention. I carefully grabbed the framed image and held it before me; it showed a woman and a young child, presumably her daughter. The part of the image that had drawn my attention was this child, though: she appeared to be the image I distinctly remembered seeing in the reflections of streams, lakes, puddles, and other such reflective surfaces as a child, myself.  


It seemed to be an image of me.  


“ _But who is that other woman?_ ”  


I carefully replaced the image in its original position before turning about the room, once again. It wasn’t extravagant by any means, but it contained more items than I thought I had ever owned in my lifetime. My eyes quickly fell on the closed door along the same wall as the wooden storage unit and I moved toward it, the floor creaking softly under my feet.  


Opening the door led into a relatively narrow hallway, many other doors branching off on either side, while the top of a set of stairs was visible at the far end. I cautiously began to move down the hallway, listening for any signs of other people, but the building seemed to be silent other than my own footsteps. The first door on my right was closed, but the one next up on the left was open, so I carefully peered around the frame. No one was in the room, but the fixtures caused me to pause for a moment.  


The large, white basin on the right looked similar to some of the “baths” I had seen in Meridian, although on a smaller scale, and made out of a material that seemed more akin to pottery than a sturdy piece of furniture. Another strange, white fixture sat at the far end of the room on the left, while something that I recognized as a washing basin stood between it and the door. Just above the basin was a wooden fixture set into the wall that sported a mirror on the front of it.  


Curiosity took hold of me as I stepped into the room, approaching the basin and slowly turning to face the reflection in the mirror. Part of me had expected to see a freckled face sporting small wrinkle lines forming around the corners of the eyes and mouth, all framed by a neat, short hairstyle, but the image I saw seemed much more… normal. The girl in the reflection wasn’t a child, but didn’t entirely have the look of an “older” adult. Her bright red hair hung to just below her shoulders in a somewhat frizzy mess while her hazel eyes seemed particular bright in the light coming in through the window to the right.  


For all intents and purposes, it seemed to be my reflection as it should be, but…  


I raised my hand and the image mimicked my motions. My hand came in contact with my hair and I felt the same frizzy texture that I saw in the reflection. It was strange to feel it not in braids, for once, but also something told me that it should have been longer. With a shiver, I let my hand fall by my side, once again.  


The clothing was most definitely not something I had ever worn before. The green, stretchy top had no sleeves and was held up by two relatively narrow straps over the shoulders, while the overall design bared much of the collar bones while stopping well high enough to remain modest.  


“Where the hell is this… and when?”  


Suddenly, I became aware of a particular smell in the room. I couldn’t place what it was, but I immediately began to feel saliva fill my mouth. I stepped into the doorway and looked both ways up and down the hallway. Something told me to head toward the stairs to my left, so I cautiously moved toward them. The stairs, themselves, creaked softly under my feet as I loosely gripped the banister beside me, running my hand along the worn smooth surface of the wood.  


As I reached the bottom, I found the smell had only grown stronger, prompting me to breathe deeply through my nose. It was some kind of cooking meat, but I couldn’t quite place where I had experienced it before. I took the last step off the stairs onto a tiled floor, the smooth surface comprised of squares of black and white that seemed to alternate in a random pattern. The soft sounds of something cooking on a hot surface came from my right and I stepped over to the stovetop. A black cast-iron pan sat on one of the four circles on its surface, strips of meat cooking in the shallow pool of grease that clicked and popped from the heat.  


I breathed deeply, once again, letting out a heavy sigh as a warm feeling spread through my chest and my stomach rumbled.  


“I knew that would get you out of bed.”  


I whirled around at the sound of the voice only to find a woman just entering the room from the doorway across from the stairs. Despite not being able to immediately place where I had seen her before, I felt… safe… happy, even. My shoulders slowly relaxed as I found a smile pulling at my lips.  


“Hard to adjust to early mornings after all that city life?”  


“I set an alarm.”  


The words seemed to naturally tumble from my mouth, but I hadn’t intended to say anything, at all.  


“Look at you, always prepared.”  


The woman approached the stove and gestured playfully for me to step aside, so I obliged, sliding back on the smooth floor a foot or two.  


“Don’t get too used to this, now, but I figured you deserved something special on your first day back.”  


As I stared back at the woman, a smile still set across my features, I studied her appearance, trying to pinpoint why she seemed so familiar. Her hair was graying, but I could still see a great deal of red strands throughout it; she also kept it much shorter than mine, the tips just barely touching at her shoulders. Her face sported a good amount of freckles across her cheeks and forehead, while wrinkles seemed to be firmly set in at the edges of her eyes and her lips. As she turned to look over at me, I noticed her hazel eyes, more green than brown or grey. She reminded me so much of…  


“You trying to butter me up with that look?”  


“Can’t I just be happy?”  


The woman laughed as I found myself stepping forward. The next thing I knew, my arms were wrapped around her in a tight embrace, my face buried in her shoulder. I breathed deeply, taking in a scent from her that seemed to just say “home,” although yet again I couldn’t quite place why. A moment later, her arms wrapped around me, as well, pulling me tightly against her. A few moments later, a mechanical ringing sounded and we both jumped, releasing each other from the embrace.  


“Egg bake’s done,” the other woman said, shooing me away as she grabbed a padded fabric square from the countertop beside the cooking meat.  


She pulled a glass plate from the oven, setting it on the top opposite the still-in-use pan before hip-checking the door closed.  


“Try not to drool too much before you get to eat any of this.”  


I simply laughed as she turned and gestured to the small table in the center of the room.  


“Take a seat. You even get full service, today.”  


As I turned to move toward the table, it seemed to be replaced with the image of a crude, wooden one, only for it to return to the neat, rectangular shape covered in a light blue-and-yellow patterned cloth as I blinked. The feet of the chair groaned softly as I dragged it back from the table, sliding into the open seat to watch the woman put some of the cooked meat and whatever was in the glass plate onto a smaller, white plate.  


A moment later, she placed it on the table before me, along with a fork, before placing one hand on my shoulder.  


“What do you want to drink, hon?”  


“I think for tradition’s sake, orange juice.”  


The woman smiled and gently clapped me on the back of my shoulder before moving over to the tall, rectangular box to our left. Within moments, she had produced a container of orange liquid from within and set it on the table beside me. She began to head toward one of the cupboards near the wash basin set into the same counter as the oven as I studied the container she had given me a moment ago.  


The entire package was covered in bright yellows, oranges, and blues, along with writing in a fancy green style. I turned the rather square-shaped container to look at one of the other sides, only to find a picture of a person on it. The image sported no color, but I could clearly make out the face it portrayed. Confusion creased my face as I read the words above the picture.  


“Have you seen me?”  


My eyes travelled back down to the image only for them to widen as I fully comprehended who was in it. The face framed in a short, neat haircut, the jaw resolutely set as her eyes seemed to bore straight into me, even from the still image. I glanced at the writing underneath the image, only for my heart rate to increase even further.  


“I might be dead.”  


“ _What?_ ”  


Suddenly, a strange sound came from the distance and the woman appeared at the edge of the table, placing a short glass on it with a frown on her face.  


“The horses are actin’ up again, let me go check on ‘em real quick.”  


She quickly began to walk toward the doorway across from the stairs as a feeling of dread began to fill me. Something didn’t feel right. The image on the carton, the picture of the woman and young me upstairs, the image in my reflection… Also, that sound had distinctly not been like any animal I had ever heard.  


I slowly began to rise from my chair, my palms slick and clammy as I gripped the wooden back of it. A moment later, a panicked scream came from outside and I froze in place. The momentary paralysis quickly seemed to pass, however, as something compelled me forward. My bare feet skidded on the tile floor slightly as I ran toward the doorway the woman had disappeared through a moment ago. I reached it and, while barely slowing down, shoved off the doorframe as I stumbled into the hallway beyond, regaining my balance by throwing out my arms to brace myself against each wall.  


The same scream sounded, once again, but this time it was much closer. My eyes locked onto the half-open door at the end of the long hallway ahead of me and before I knew it, I was sprinting toward it. I rammed the partially-open door with my shoulder, throwing it wide as I was spilled out into the bright sunlight beyond. I squinted my eyes against the harsh lighting, raising one hand to block it, as well. I blinked rapidly in a desperate bid to get my eyes to adjust faster, which didn’t seem to do much to speed up the process, but I soon found myself at least able to see without being in pain.  


My hand fell by my side, once again, in time to catch sight of a figure running across the open expanse of ground that surrounded the building I had just left. As I watched, a hulking, dark shape suddenly rushed at her, but she dove out of the way at the last second, clumsily scrambling to her feet a moment later.  


“Mom?!”  


Confusion creased my face as the word escaped my lips. My mother? I didn’t have one… not a real person, I had a chance of meeting, at least, but… yeah, Mom seemed right to my mind.  


Suddenly, the dark shape appeared near the figure, once again, although this time a long, flexible appendage shot forward from it, slamming into her. The figure jerked slightly in place, looking down at the arm that still remained in contact with her stomach. A moment later, the arm began to raise, lifting the figure with it, and I realized what had happened.  


“No!”  


Without giving any thought as to what I would actually do, I found myself hopping off the front steps of the porch and sprinting across the open ground toward the Corruptor holding the woman aloft. No matter how fast I pushed myself to run, they seemed to be just far enough away that I wasn’t making any significant progress.  


Suddenly, I noticed the launcher on the top of the Corruptor beginning to spin and pure adrenaline poured through my veins.  


“ _No!_ ”  


The scream tore itself from my throat as I desperately reached toward the figure impaled on the Corruptor’s arm, but I was too far away to do anything about it; I was just close enough, however, to finally make out some clear details about her. She was wearing a red, loose-fitting top and a pair of blue leggings, which immediately sparked a memory of an image of a woman wearing a similar outfit, but I couldn’t quite place where it had come from as I continued to sprint toward the soon-to-be execution.  


At the sound of my voice calling out across the open ground, the figures head lolled to one side, revealing a freckled face framed by a short, neat hairstyle that—  


Wait.  


I skidded to a halt, staring up at the image of Elisabet held aloft by the Corruptor, the tip of its deadly arm firmly lodged in her abdomen. Her mouth moved, but I couldn’t hear any words as she weakly raised one hand toward me. A second later, the Corruptor’s launcher seemed to reach full speed and I saw a flash of red erupt from it before the entire scene changed with my next blink.  


The open, expansive field and bright sunlight was replaced with a cold, snowy mountain pass, rock walls reaching toward a darkened sky on either side of me. I glanced around, only to find that there were two ways to go: forward or backward. I seemed to have already come a good ways up this pass, based on how far away the exit to the strange ravine was behind me, while up ahead I noticed some kind of strange rock formation.  


“Seems like I’m supposed to go that way…”  


I tentatively began to move forward, noting how each footstep seemed to echo up and down the entire length of the ravine. A quick glance down at myself also revealed that I was back in my normal clothing, once again. After only about a minute or so of walking, I reached the strange rock formation. Now that I was much closer, I realized exactly what it was: the rock placed at Rost’s memorial.  


“ _Oh no…_ ”  


I still felt compelled to move toward it, but there was a new, creeping sense of uncertainty and wariness that hadn’t been there before. Unlike with Elisabet and the Corruptor in the field, the rock seemed to draw closer at a normal pace, until I stopped several yards before it. Everything seemed to be as I remembered it from earlier: the carved rock with several small tokens left in tribute before it, the light dusting of snow, the silver moonlight illuminating the entire scene… but as I looked closer, several of the tokens seemed strange.  


One of them was the helmet to the suit I had seen Elisabet wearing outside the GAIA Prime facility, another was a Focus broken in half, while yet another was a strange, rectangular metal device that I didn’t recognize. The others seemed more fitting for a Nora memorial, such as arrows, a sharp knife made from the claw of some machine, a small wicker Grazer idol, and a smooth wooden bowl.  


As I closed the last few feet to the memorial, a cold wind blew from behind me and I shivered. When I looked back up at the memorial, I jumped in surprise. The image of Rost standing in place of the carved rock now appeared before me, his eyes locked on mine while his jaw remained set, unspeaking.  


“Rost…”  


My knees grew weaker and weaker until I finally collapsed into a kneeling position before the monument.  


“I… I came back to visit… I… I hope…”  


As I looked back up toward where he had been standing a moment ago, however, he was gone, replaced with the carved rock, once again. My mouth hung open for a moment or two longer before I slowly closed it, taking a deep breath in through my nose, closing my eyes as I did and leaning back on my heels.  


A strange feeling came over me, raising the hair on the back of my neck and I opened my eyes. At first, I almost expected yet another vicious machine to be bearing down on me from over the top of the rock wall behind the memorial, but instead I found something even more unexpected. The image of Elisabet, as I remembered seeing her in the recordings and during my visions when she was at the Zero Dawn facility, was standing beside the memorial, staring up at the carved rock slab. She slowly stepped forward, raising one hand and running it along the edge of the large rock.  


I waited for several moments, but she didn’t say anything, only looked over the memorial with seeming curiosity, crouching down beside the tokens placed on the ground before it.  


“You had your mother,” I finally said, my voice breaking the silence, “and I had Rost.”  


The image of Elisabet looked up at me, but remained silent, an unreadable expression on her face. Her eyes cast down toward the tokens left on the ground, her hand briefly resting on the metal helmet before sliding off it. A moment later, her hand came to rest over the strange, rectangular device to the right, the tips of her several of her fingers resting on top of it. Confusion creased my face as I looked up from the object to her, once again.  


“What is it?”  


She remained silent, still, but tapped the device more emphatically. I regarded her for several more seconds until she nodded down toward it and I finally focused on the metal rectangle. As I did, I heard the sound of my Focus coming to life in my ear. Suddenly, images and text burst forth from the device on the ground, projected into the air around me as my eyes widened. I slowly turned to look at as many of the images as I could, but each one seemed to only display for a few seconds before it was replaced with another.  


As my gaze finally came back around to the monument and the image of Elisabet, I found her regarding me with what seemed like a sad smile for a moment before she swallowed and her jaw was set resolutely.  


“APOLLO.”  


Her voice was soft, yet it seemed to fill the entirety of the ravine around me, echoing about the rocky walls. It took me a few moments to recognize the significance of what she had said, but when I did, I sighed, my shoulders sagging.  


“The backups, I know, but… they’re buried deep in the Eclipse’s land.”  


The images swirling around me began to change from those of ancient drawings and natural landscapes to those of a world reduced to sand and dust, burnt trees stretching into the sky like skeletal fingers while dark shapes skirted about them, their multiple legs moving much too fast.  


“HADES.”  


Elisabet’s voice came again, the same as it had before. I simply nodded slowly.  


“How am I supposed to stop it? I’m no expert with machines like you were.”  


The image of Elisabet shook her head, seemingly sighing heavily, although no sound came with it.  


“Not alone.”  


Confusion creased my features as I stared back at her.  


“But… you died…”  


The image of Elisabet stared back at me for a few moments before her shoulders sagged slightly. A moment later, she held up one hand toward me, palm facing outward. I tentatively reached my hand toward her in the same gesture. Goosebumps shot up my arm as I closed the gap between us. As my hand reached hers, I expected it to pass straight through, like some kind of ghostly projection, but instead I felt a very real, tangible hand beneath mine. A small gasp escaped my lips as I looked at our hands pressed against each other before looking back up at her face.  


As I did, I found that the image of Elisabet had been replaced by one of me, complete with the mane of braids and the tanned leather-and-fur clothing, a bow and a spear lashed across her back. I happened to notice something out of the corner of my eye and looked down at my arm to see that it was now covered by a soft, grey jacket. A quick glance down at myself revealed that I now seemed to be dressed in the outfit Elisabet had been wearing a moment ago. I didn’t have to stretch my imagination too far to believe that the image of myself across from me was now staring entirely at a complete image of Elisabet.  


A blink later, however, and Elisabet was crouched before me, her hand still outstretched toward mine. I could see my bare arm between us and knew that I must look like myself, again.  


“Not alone.”  


Elisabet’s voice echoed about the ravine, once again, soft but powerful as I felt a warm feeling spreading throughout my chest. A moment later, I realized that the warm feeling had moved up to my face, as well, and I blinked rapidly.  


The image of Rost’s memorial and Elisabet before me was suddenly gone, replaced by that of a slowly dying fire. Confusion creased my face for several moments before I realized that I was also now lying down and memories of returning to Rost’s hut came flooding back to me. I sat up quickly, glancing around the room, but found that I was as alone as I had been when I had gone to sleep. With a heavy sigh, I fell back onto the bedroll, running my hands over my face.  


“I thought those sort of things were supposed to stop, now…”  


I stared up at the ceiling for several long moments before rolling my head to the side to look at the fire. There were still orange flames visible around the edges of the logs, so I figured it was safe to assume that not all that much time had passed since I had fallen asleep. With a heavy sigh, I ran my hands over my face, once again, rubbing at my eyes.  


“Come on, you need to get some sleep or you’re not gonna make it… wherever it is that you’re going tomorrow.”  


“True, where is it that you plan to go tomorrow?”  


The sudden voice in the middle of the otherwise silent room caused me to jump, sitting upright as I scrambled for one of my nearby weapons and managing to only find my spear. As I scanned the darkness with my eyes, weapon gripped firmly in my hands, I came to realize that I recognized the voice. It was deep and rumbling, but not like the one I had grown up with.  


“Sylens…”  


“It seems you have had some time to ruminate on your findings in the Eleuthia facility.”  


“Something like that.”  


“So what have you deduced as the correct course of action, now?”  


“I need to get into Sunfall. There’s… something I need under it.”  


“Well, then it seems as if perhaps you will need to rely on your ‘other half’ to get in.”  


Confusion came over me for a moment before the realization that Sylens had no way of knowing exactly what had happened since leaving the mountain hit me and I tried to quickly think of a way to not clue him in to any of it.  


“ _Just… pretend like everything after she left Zero Dawn never happened. She’s… back inside and…_ ”  


“You know, I’m thinking I want to revise her plan a bit.”  


“Oh? Do tell.”  


“Just being able to block their signal enough to get inside isn’t good enough. I want to take down their entire network, everywhere.”  


“That would certainly be quite the feat.”  


“And even if I can figure out how to do it… I need to know where to find the center of the web.”  


A moment of silence followed my statement and I worried that Sylens had disappeared, yet again, but his deep baritone sounded in my ear a few seconds later.  


“I suppose this is your way of asking for my help?”  


“You seemed to share a similar goal, before.”  


“That is true. I do suppose our interests are aligned, somewhat.”  


“So is that your way of saying ‘yes’?”  


“I will send you a location near the Eclipse base that houses the central part of their network. Head there, and I will contact you once you’ve arrived.”  


“ _Sounds almost like a trap… but I don’t have a whole lot else to go on._ ”  


“Deal.”  


“I wonder what has prompted such a change of heart from your attitude at the Eleuthia facility?”  


“You mean toward you?”  


A short laugh escaped me as I reached one hand toward my Focus.  


“You know what they say: the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”  


Before he could say anything else, however, I tapped the Focus and ended the communication, throwing the hut into silence, once again.  


“Who says that?” I muttered aloud, confusion creasing my face.


	6. Stories of the Past

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Monday.
> 
> This story is really about to take off soon, so I hope you've been following along and enjoying this exposition, so far, because we're getting close to some truly interesting, explosive stuff.
> 
> As always, I hope you enjoy the chapter, and leave a comment with any questions/reactions/confused outbursts that you may have; I always enjoy reading what y'all have to say, and try my best to offer some kind of response at least by the next week, if not sooner.

The beginnings of a headache began to throb in my temples and I groaned softly, rubbing them with my fingers. With a heavy sigh, I fell back onto the bedroll, adjusting my position until I was under the blanket, once again, and closed my eyes. I wasn’t entirely sure if I ever fell asleep again, but the next thing I knew the warmth of the fire against my side was gone and I could hear the faint sounds of birdsong outside the hut.  


With a groan, I stretched my arms above my head, slowly blinking my eyes open. The air on my bare arms felt incredibly chilly and I shivered, quickly pulling them back under the cover of the blanket.  


“ _Do I have to get up?_ ”  


With a sigh, I began to brace myself to leave the warmth of the blanket. Just before I did, however, I heard another sound outside the hut that made me stop, listening intently past the usual sounds of the world waking up. It took a few seconds for it to come again, but when I heard the sounds echoing faintly in the distance, I immediately pinpointed what they were.  


“ _Voices… people… up here?_ ”  


I quickly scrambled from underneath the blanket, all inhibitions about the cold air long gone as I swiped my bow from against the table and strapped the quiver over my basic underclothing; there was no time to put on any real armor. As I leaned against the wall beside the main door to the hut, I tried carefully to control my breathing, watching the small plumes of my breath expanding slower and slower before me in the fine rays of sunlight that filtered through the cracks between the wooden slats in the walls.  


By now, the voices were much more audible; I put them around the turn in the path where Rost’s monument stood. I slid an arrow from the quiver and nocked it against the string as I carefully pulled the door open just enough to allow me to peek one eye through the crack. Several men in full Nora Brave outfits and loaded with bows and spears of their own were approaching the front gate of the grounds just outside the hut, none of them looking as if they were trying to be particularly stealthy. Also, I noted that none of them were currently holding their weapons. They all looked so… casual.  


As they passed the gateway, they stared up at the design over their heads, pointing and making indistinguishable comments before one of them looked down at the ground and pointed at something.  


“ _Footprints. They tracked me up here._ ”  


My hands tightened around the bow and arrow as my body tensed for the confrontation. A moment later, one of them glanced around before cupping his hands around his mouth.  


“Anointed! Aloy! We have come at the High Matriarchs’ request!”  


Confusion caused me to pause for a moment, but my guard instantly went back up as I took a deep breath and slowly pulled the door to the hut open. The men all turned to face me as I stepped outside, still holding the bow before me, but lowered for the time being.  


“Anointed, we did not wish to disturb you, however—”  


“I heard you,” I cut in, scanning the group of four Braves who had arrived.  


“Then we will be ready to leave as soon as you are.”  


“And if I don’t want to go?”  


The group of four Braves suddenly looked rather confused, exchanging glances with each other. Not many who were held in such high regard had ever dared suggest they defy the High Matriarchs, apparently.  


“Is that why you brought four of you: if I didn’t come easily?”  


“N-no, ma’am, we simply—”  


“For my protection, then?”  


The man in the front shifted awkwardly, kicking at a rock on the ground before him.  


“If you truly knew anything about me, you would know why that’s unnecessary.”  


“I apologize, Anointed, but…”  


He glanced back at the men behind him, and I noticed for the first time that the two in the rear seemed to be considerably older than the men in the front. They sported grayed or graying hair and faces that looked battered and weathered, almost as if they had been carved out of stone by the elements, themselves.  


“…some of us had another reason to come, so we felt it was only fair.”  


The older men in the back stared back at me with squared jaws as I finally began to piece together their reason for coming. I slowly let the bow before me hang at my side as I stepped forward, standing at the lip of the first step off the front platform.  


“You knew Rost?”  


The words came out almost like a whisper, a plume of warm vapor escaping my lips with them, but the men seemed to understand, regardless, and simply nodded. My mouth hung open for a moment before I forced it closed, nodding shortly.  


“I’ll be out in a minute.”  


With that, I slipped back into the hut, letting out a shuddering sigh as soon as I was out of sight, running my hands over my face.  


“Maybe… maybe they could tell me…”  


“ _The Nora don’t speak of their outcasts._ ”  


I clenched my jaw as my hands clenched into fists beside me.  


“Unless The Anointed asks.”  


Within a minute or two, I had packed up all of my travelling gear and was slinging my bow over my head, shifting it until it sat comfortably across my back. One last, quick glance around the hut left a pang of fondness and nostalgia in my chest before I turned and opened the front door, once again.  


The older Braves had taken seats by the dormant campfire outside, while the younger two stood nearby, talking quietly between themselves. At the sound of my footsteps on the wooden steps, they all turned to face me, the older Braves rising from their seats.  


“Shall we head to Mother’s Watch?”  


I ignored the younger two Braves, immediately making my way over to the older men and stopping before them, taking a deep breath as I glanced between their faces.  


“Could you tell me about him?”  


Neither of the men said anything for a moment, the one to my right instead looking over me toward where I presumed the monument was. Just as I began to consider using my “Goddess-approved authority,” the one on the left spoke, his voice as deep and gruff as the mountain where we stood.  


“The Nora do not usually speak of Outcasts, even in their passing, however I feel this is an exception.”  


Excitement began to build in my chest as I nervously cleared my throat.  


“On the way?”  


The men simply nodded and I spun on my heel to look to the younger Braves.  


“So, Mother’s Watch?”

 

By the time we had reached the base of the mountain from the hut and were making our way across the sunny meadowlands of the Embrace, I realized that I had not stopped talking to the older Braves for even a minute. They had told stories about Rost as a fearsome and dedicated defender of the Nora, his conviction and faith unwavering even in the most trying of times.  


“ _Makes sense why he… was the way he was, I guess. Sorry, Rost…_ ”  


They also spoke of his family, which immediately drew my attention. Based on the way he behaved with me, I had assumed for years that I wasn’t the first child he had raised, but something about actually knowing he had an entire family before left a strange feeling in my chest. Did he see his actual daughter in me? Or did he try to push those memories aside? Was I a cause of pain for him, other than that which usually comes with raising a child to adulthood?  


I pushed these questions aside as I began to make out the wall that protected the entrance to Mother’s Watch in the distance. With a heavy sigh, I turned to the older Braves beside me with one final question.  


“How did Rost become an outcast, then?”  


The men exchanged glances, the discomfort clearly evident in their body language.  


“I think for the true story of that, you should ask High Matriarch Teersa.”  


Confusion creased my face as I felt the disappointment sinking in my stomach.  


“Teersa?”  


The men simply nodded.  


“All I will say,” the one with the voice like a mountain said, “was that it was for a just cause.”  


My confusion only deepened, but we had reached the gates of Mother’s Watch, and it seemed my chance to ask any further questions had come to a close. As soon as we entered the settlement, I could feel the eyes of every tribesperson on me. I tried to keep my gaze focused on the path ahead as one of the younger braves turned to face me, walking backward.  


“The Matriarchs are at the entrance to the mountain.”  


“ _Have they been standing there all day?_ ”  


I nodded in response to his question and only allowed the smirk to pull at my lips once he had turned away. The path up to the mountain’s entrance, the original door to the Eleuthia facility, only brought more of the same: stares of fear, curiosity, awe, and still, on some faces, scorn. I guess being revered as having communed with the goddess didn’t entirely change everyone’s opinions. Finally, we reached the open field before the main door and I immediately spotted the group of three older woman in their intricate robes and headdresses standing before it. They appeared to be in the midst of a heated discussion, but as soon as one of them spotted our group, she alerted the others and they turned to face us.  


“Aloy!”  


Teersa immediately stepped forward, placing a hand on my arm and squeezing it gently.  


“I apologize for sending a party of Braves for you, but—well, as I’m sure you heard—several of them volunteered.”  


“So I did.”  


I glanced back at the two older Braves who simply bowed their heads slightly before turning and beginning the trek back down to the settlement below.  


“We have heard word that you will be heading back out soon and we wanted to have a word with you before you did so.”  


My jaw clenched as I bit back the question to ask who had told them. I didn’t have to ask a pointless question when I knew the answer.  


“ _Dammit, Varl._ ”  


“Come, come, let us speak inside the temple.”  


Confusion crossed my face as Teersa gently urged me onward, the other two Matriarchs, Lansra and Jezza, already turning to head in ahead of us. I glanced back to see the two remaining Braves hesitate for a moment before turning and following after their older counterparts. Soon, I was back inside the orange-hued walls of the All Mother temple, following the Matriarchs back toward the door to the Eleuthia facility.  


Before we could continue on to the large door, however, we took a turn to the right and I soon found myself in the same room where I had first found my clothing and weapons after waking up from my fall at the Proving. Candles cluttered almost every possible surface, casting the room in a hazy, smoky fog that caused me to cough at first, but I quickly tried to hide it as the others seemed unaffected by it.  


“What did you want to talk to me about that’s so important?” I asked, patting my chest as I tried to settle my coughing fit.  


“You told us before that you were still hunting for the killers from the Proving, but… you alluded that it was not quite so simple.”  


“Not exactly, no.”  


The three matriarchs exchanged glances before Lansra spoke, her calm tone at odds with her words.  


“War Chief Sona spoke of something similar, as well, saying that she would leave the explanation to you.”  


“ _Gee, thanks…_ ”  


“Aloy… I sense this may be touching on something larger… something that ties into your relation to the Goddess…”  


My jaw clenched as the images of a dark-skinned woman in a brightly colored, flowing dress flashed in my mind’s eye.  


“Are these killers a sign of something greater?”  


I blinked rapidly as my eyes widened slightly. That was not exactly the question I had been expecting them to ask. It was… a little too accurate.  


“I… uh… I think they may be, yes.”  


Nervous muttering came from the three older women as I heaved a heavy sigh.  


“I know that many of our people would ask that, if what you say is true, you stay here, however I do not feel this is the way you would best handle this threat.”  


The look of confusion on my face must have been great because Teersa quickly launched into the second half of her explanation.  


“I believe that, as we appointed you Seeker before, you are best equipped to take on this worldly evil by taking the fight directly to it.”  


“So… you… want me to go?”  


“Well, I don’t see much use in keeping you here, just for you to sit around.”  


I knew I had always liked Teersa the most for a reason, even if what I knew now told me her faith may be somewhat misguided.  


“Is that all you wanted to talk to me about, then?”  


The three women exchanged glances before Lansra spoke, once again.  


“We wanted to know if you felt the Nora were at risk from another attack so soon after the first, and you seem to believe that this threat extends beyond our lands. We will have Sona and her Braves oversee preparations here, however we know that we cannot keep you. The Goddess has clearly chosen you for a greater purpose than the Embrace can contain.”  


The other Matriarchs nodded in agreement and I found myself squirming under their gazes slightly. This was certainly sounding like a lot of praise, especially coming from a group that had previously fought and bickered over whether I even deserved to be treated as a human. I bit my tongue at the rising fire that threatened to break free of my chest, and simply nodded in response before uttering a single, forced “thank you.”  


“Do you require anything before your journey?”  


I glanced down at myself, patting at the various pouches and pockets to a chorus of jingling metal. It had never occurred to me how many of the things I used were based on metal designs, at least somewhat, until right then.  


“I think… I already stocked up at Mother’s Heart. I should be fine.”  


“Then may the goddess protect you on your journey,” Lansra said, nodding sagely and offering a small smile.  


Part of me wanted to ask Teersa the question that had burning in the back of my mind ever since my conversation with the older Braves on the way to Mother’s Watch, but with the other two Matriarchs standing nearby…  


I nodded in return to their farewell before turning on my heel to exit the chamber. As I began to make my way back toward the main entrance to the mountain, I opened the Focus interface with a quick tap to the device. The familiar blue and purple lines came into view around me, overlaying text and the outlines of objects farther into the facility over the natural world. A notification on the main screen lit up in yellow text, drawing my eyes to it.  


“New data downloaded.”  


“ _Sylens’s directions, I hope._ ”  


As I tapped on the notification, the map function of the device opened, revealing a top-down view of the world around the Embrace. A moment later, the image zoomed across the mountains to the south and then across the jungle south of Meridian. The motion overlaid against the actual motion of me walking created a feeling of nausea for a moment as I staggered to the side slightly, one hand shooting out to catch myself on the nearby wall.  


As my hand came into contact with the surface, I found not the rough, dirty surface that I had come to associate with the inside of the mountain, but a cold, smooth surface. My head spun to look over at my hand, my eyes widening as I saw the shining metal beneath my fingers. It was much too bright, all of the sudden.  


I spun in place, glancing around to find that the candlelit hallway had been replaced by a shining, clean environment, lit by harsh, unnatural lighting overhead.  


“What the…?”  


Suddenly, a voice rang out behind me and I spun to face it, my knees bent slightly in anticipation of defending against whoever had just called out to me. Instead of someone brandishing a weapon in my direction, I found Travis staring back at me.  


Wait… Travis?  


“You, uh… everything okay there?”  


I blinked several times, the image of the hallway flickering between its normal, completed appearance and a ruined one. But wait, hadn’t I just been in the ruin?  


“Y-yeah, just… like a maze in here… you get lost.”  


He regarded me with a strange expression for a moment or two longer before clearing his throat and nodding to his left.  


“Well, if you’re satisfied up here, we might as well go check in with Patrick in the control room.”  


I just nodded in response, tucking some of my hair behind one ear as I stood straight. Travis disappeared from sight as I took a deep breath, running my hands over my jacket for a moment before moving toward where he had just been. After I had taken only a few steps, I came to a stop, cocking my head to the side slightly.  


No… something about all this was wrong. I… I had been here… before. When? No, this… this was another…  


I took a deep breath and closed my eyes for a moment. As I did, I began to smell the distinct scent of smoke and I slowly cracked open my eyes. The hallway was bathed in a warm, orange glow, once again, candles resting along floor by the walls and on small platforms built into wooden bracings that shored up the ceiling and more dilapidated parts of the walls.  


Everything as it should be.  


To make doubly sure, as if it would help somehow, I reached across myself and pinched the opposite arm. A grimace pulled at my lips as I felt the stinging sensation of my nails digging into my skin, and I glanced down to make sure I hadn’t actually broken it. No blood leaked from the spot I had just pinched, so I let my arms fall by my sides, once again, and focused on making my way out of the mountain.  


“ _No need for other people to see whatever that was._ ”  


As I reached the main passageway, I glanced to the right, down toward the large door that I now knew protected the entrance to the Eleuthia facility. As my gaze swept over it, however, I could have sworn I saw two figures standing on the circular metal floor before it. A blink later, however, and they were gone.  


“Great, seeing ghosts, now?”  


I quickly turned away from the facility and hurried up the incline to the exit, squinting my eyes against the harsh sunlight for a moment or two until they had adjusted. Almost immediately, a cool breeze blew into me and I shivered slightly, but reveled in the feeling of being free from the confines of the ancient tunnels.  


“Okay, let’s try using that location Sylens sent, again.”  


As I brought up the map using the data that had suddenly appeared on my Focus, I found that the location was at the very edge of the jungle to the southwest of Meridian. Beyond that point, the map faded into darkness with the text “Map currently unavailable” displayed over it.  


“Taking me to the edge of the world, are you?”  


“ _Not quite the edge of the world, you know there’s more beyond it._ ”  


With a sigh, I selected the location on the map and set the device to guide me there. As I closed the map, I located the yellow shape that indicated the direction I needed to go to reach the point I had just set and my shoulders sagged.  


“That’s a really big number…”  


With a heavy sigh, I closed the interface and began to make my way down the path into Mother’s Watch. As I reached the settlement, I could once again feel everyone’s eyes on me, and I forced myself to stare straight ahead, striding purposefully out of the main gates and into the Embrace, beyond. The walk to the main gate wasn’t exceptionally far, but still gave me enough time to put my thoughts in order without the interruptions and distractions of others.  


That dream from last night, the one with the strange house and the woman I didn’t recognize… she seemed so familiar, yet I couldn’t specifically recall where I had seen her before. The image in the reflection, as well… it seemed to be me, but… not quite.  


The answer seemed obvious, but it didn’t make sense.  


“ _Elisabet’s memory._ ”  


But how did that work? I didn’t remember anything of her life before, so why now all of the sudden? Some kind of leftover from whatever connection we shared? But that should have all ended when…  


I swallowed the hard lump in my throat before clenching my jaw tightly.  


“ _When she died. It happened. It was a thousand years ago. You need to admit it._ ”  


As the thoughts passed through my mind, I found my vision growing blurry and I quickly rubbed at my eyes, wiping away the hot tears that had begun to form.  


“ _You tried your best. There was nothing you could do. She set her mind to it and… she did the right thing._ ”  


Right. Breaking down now would do no one any good.  


“ _You remember what she said in that… field… place._ ”  


As I tried to recall the memory of that strangely-lit field, I instead found the image of Elisabet crouched before the monument to Rost, one hand held out toward me. Her lips didn’t move, but her voice seemed to echo through my head, repeating what I had heard last night.  


“Not alone.”  


“ _But how?_ ”  


I didn’t have long to think on that as my eyes caught sight of the large, wooden gate that marked the exit of the Embrace. Apparently I had been walking longer than I had thought. I noticed the figures standing in the guard tower above the gate, one of them gesturing in my direction as the other turned to look, as well. When they both noticed me staring back at them, they quickly tried to be more secretive and turned away, but I could clearly see them talking to each other.  


“ _Great, just what I needed on my way out._ ”  


As I approached the main gate, I saw several other Braves standing before it, leaning on their spears as they talked idly, clearly rather bored. When they noticed someone approaching, however, they stood up straight, holding their spears at their sides. Two of them looked surprised when they noticed just who was approaching, but the third didn’t share their enthusiasm. With a sigh, I came to a stop in front of Varl, his arms folded before him.  


“Varl.”  


“Aloy.”  


We remained standing in silence for several long moments before I sighed, shifting my stance slightly.  


“Can you… open the gate?”  


He stared back at me in silence for several long moments before gesturing to the Braves in the watchtower. A few moment later, the sound of the heavy wooden barricade moving filled the air. I glanced past him to see that it was already open just wide enough for a person to pass through.  


“Where will you go, now?”  


The question took me by surprise, bringing my attention back to Varl. His arms remained tightly folded across his chest as his eyes stared straight into mine with an intensity that made me feel uncomfortable.  


“Past Meridian.”  


“What’s there?”  


“Something I need to take care of.”  


Varl looked like he wanted to say something else, but a loud voice from nearby cut him off. We both turned to look toward the gate to find three more Braves striding purposefully toward us, the one in the lead instantly familiar.  


“Leaving so soon, Aloy?”  


Sona came to a stop beside Varl, placing her hands on her hips. It was so often strange to see the two of them so close together, their faces built so similarly, yet Sona's carrying the scars and faint lines of someone who had seen far more fighting and adversity than Varl's still relatively youthful appearance.  


“There are some things I need to take care of.”  


“Related to those cultists?”  


I nodded and her lips pulled into a thin line.  


“I would like to say we’ll be ready for them, if they should attack again, but I don’t know if I can force myself to believe that,” she began. “I hope that whatever you are seeking to do will deal a crippling blow to them.”  


“That’s… that’s the plan.”  


Sona nodded before glancing over at Varl and then back at me.  


“I would offer assistance, however from what I know of you—”  


“I work better alone.”  


With a smirk, Sona nodded toward the gate behind her.  


“May the goddess protect, and may you return in one piece.”  


I nodded in response, a grin pulling at my lips, as well.  


“Thank you, War Chief,” I replied before glancing over at Varl. “Until next time.”  


He didn’t have time to respond before I slipped past the entire group, quickly making my way out of the gate and into the wilderness beyond the Embrace. As soon as I stepped onto the short bridge leading over the shallow stream just outside the entrance, the image of a destroyed Sawtooth flashed before me, its lifeless and sparking frame lying on the wooden surface while the carcasses of several Watchers littered the ground nearby.  


As soon as I blinked, though, everything returned to normal.  


“ _Can’t go five feet without seeing something that shouldn’t be there…_ ”


	7. Real Life or Just Fantasy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy monday y'all.
> 
> We're finally getting into the parts of this story that I've been really excited about for a while (since I write many chapters ahead of where I post).
> 
> Shit's about to get weird. I feel like I say something like that every week, but... well, you'll see.

With a quick glance over my shoulder toward the gate closing behind me, I strode purposefully forward, the hollow thuds that came with each footfall on the wooden surface quickly giving way to the crunch of the dirt path beyond it. The mid-morning sun was warm overhead, although the cold breeze that blew every minute or so helped keep it from feeling truly stifling. Memories of the heat of the desert and the stickiness of the jungle around Meridian arose in the back of my mind, sending a wave of heat and discomfort down my spine that caused me to shiver for an entirely different reason.  


“We can deal with that when we come to it.”  


“ _We?_ ”  


I sighed, rubbing at one temple with my fingers. As I did, I almost didn’t notice the electronic chirping sound nearby, but when it elevated to a loud alarm tone, I froze, my free hand beginning to reach for the spear behind me. A moment later, I saw motion out of the corner of my eye and I gripped the wooden shaft behind me, yanking it free as I dropped into a crouch, spinning to my right in one fluid motion. The Watcher that had suddenly charged toward me soon found itself with a spear lodged in its glowing, red eye, its inner workings slowing to a stop with a whining, whirring sound.  


Just as soon as the first machine fell, however, I saw several more lift their heads, their yellow eyes looking in my direction. Unlike the Watcher, however, the Striders took off running in the opposite direction, and I sighed.  


“ _Of course._ ”  


I deftly flipped the spear to my right hand as I took off after the fleeing machines. They were much faster than me, however it worked to my advantage as it allowed me to see where they had stopped, and plan my approach. Immediately, I slipped into a patch of tall, red-tipped grass, crouching amongst the slowly swaying stalks. The Striders continued to look around for several long moments before their eyes returned to their resting blue color and they resumed grazing in the open field beside the stream.  


My eyes traced the various paths between cover between myself and the machines, until I eventually decided on one that I felt had a good chance of working. As I moved forward through the grass, I took great care to make sure I stayed as low as possible, and move slowly enough to avoid obviously disturbing the grass or making any extra noise. When I reached the edge of the patch of grass, I glanced toward the Striders before taking a deep breath and rushing forward.  


I quickly dove forward, ducking my head as I felt my shoulders hit the ground first before I continued to roll, finally popping out of the maneuver as I skittered the last foot or two into the next patch of tall grass. I froze in place, holding my breath as I waited to see how the Striders reacted. The one nearest to me lifted its head, but its eyes remained blue; a moment later, it went back to grazing, allowing me to slowly let out the breath I had been holding.  


The next minute or so of making my way closer to the herd felt like an hour as I was forced to move slowly or stop and wait for them to shift positions. As I drew within the last few yards of them, one of the Striders was facing me, although its head was down near the ground. I waited impatiently at the edge of the tall grass for it to turn away, but it seemed all too content to remain grazing in its current position.  


With a sigh through my nose, I propped my knee on the ground and leaned back on my heel to rest for a moment, softly tapping my fingers on my thigh. Despite my earlier sentiment that the breeze kept the day from feeling too stiflingly hot, that seemed to have disappeared now as I felt the sweat running down my back and the sides of my face, the breeze either so rare or so weak by now that it provided little to no relief against the burning heat from above. As a rogue droplet began to run toward my eye, I craned my neck to wipe my forehead with the shoulder of my tunic.  


When I lifted my head, once again, I recoiled in surprise. The Strider I had been stalking had been replaced by… something else. It wasn’t a machine, but it looked incredibly similar in size and shape to the one it had suddenly replaced. A long neck sporting a long mane of dark hair led to a large, muscular body on top of four long, narrow legs. Its head shook as its neck raised, the motion seemingly passing all the way down its neck and through its body.  


“ _What are you?_ ”  


Just as soon as the animal had appeared, however, it was replaced by the Strider, once again, although I noted that its eyes had turned yellow. With a muttered curse under my breath, I ducked down in the grass, hoping to drop out of sight. I couldn’t see the machine anymore, but I could hear its footfalls growing closer. My hand tightened around the shaft of my spear, the sweat on my palm making it feel slicker than usual, but it didn’t feel close to slipping from my grasp.  


As the head and glowing eyes of the Strider came into view above me, I suddenly darted forward, flipping the spear around so the butt end faced forward. The tip of the override module pressed against the body of the Strider and immediately brought my Focus to life, the web of blue lines surrounding the machine and me as a rapidly filling bar appeared above the tool attached to my spear. Within a few moments, the bar filled completely with a bright white and several blue rings projected around the tool by the Focus flashed before the entire interface closed, once again.  


I glanced up at the machine to find its eyes had returned to a docile blue and it seemed mildly interested in me in a way that didn’t involve stamping me into the ground or kicking me clear across the stream. The sound of mechanical chirping came from nearby and I glanced past the Strider before me to see the others were all looking my way, most of their eyes yellow while the one closest had already turned red as it began to move toward me.  


“Time to go.”  


I quickly shot to my feet and grabbed at the mane of cords on the back of the Strider’s head, using them to help pull me onto its back. Once I was safely in place, I kicked my heels against its sides, glancing back. The front hooves of the angry, charging Strider barely cleared my back as I leaned forward, pressing myself against the back of my Strider just in time to avoid being knocked clean off it.  


The machine under me charged forward, weaving somewhat wildly under my control as I struggled to stow my spear behind me. Once I had finally stashed it in its holder, I took hold of the cords in both hands and brought the Strider more under control. The rest of the herd hadn’t given chase for more than a few moments, so I was able to slow the galloping machine to a more leisurely canter with a heavy sigh of relief.  


“Gotta keep things exciting, I guess.”  


The seat on the Strider’s back wasn’t the most comfortable, especially seeing as it constantly moved and jolted with each step across the relatively uneven terrain, but it was certainly faster than walking all the way to Meridian.  


The ride to Daytower was thankfully uneventful, so I was able to simply take in the scenery as my mind worked over the plan for what do about Sylens and the Eclipse. On one hand, I had originally liked the idea of cutting him out entirely and just going straight to Sunfall, but now that I didn’t have the benefit of Elisabet being able to work her technological magic and block the Eclipse network, that had to be scrapped.  


“ _Plus, if you actually take out the source of their network, then that will disrupt them even more than simply tricking them for one specific time._ ”  


That justification sounded a little weak, but it was what I had to stick to in order to assuage the fears that I was walking into a deadly trap. It was entirely still a possibility, but I hoped I would be able to come up with a way to outsmart it before I got to the location Sylens had sent me.  


As I crested the ridge overlooking the main gate to Daytower, I half-expected to find a Corruptor assaulting it, once again, but instead found it to be relatively peaceful. Carja guards still stood along the top of the wall, but they were not actively drawing arrows to fire at me or any other threats that approached. If anything, they looked somewhat bored, like the guards at the Main Embrace Gate.  


“ _Small world._ ”  


A smirk tugged at my lips as I guided the Strider down the path and toward the open gate. Several Carja soldiers standing just inside froze in place at the sight of the machine heading toward them, but their faces quickly turned from surprise to confusion when they saw the red-haired Nora girl on top of it.  


“By the sun…”  


I grinned as they stood still, watching me pass between them. The strider didn’t seem to show any interest in the people I passed, simply plowing on ahead as I directed it. Just as I went to pass a raised area just inside the gate, a voice called out and I brought the Strider to a stop.  


“Nora girl!”  


I glanced toward the stone dais to find the man who I remembered to be the head of the guard at Daytower stepping to the edge of it, raising one hand to get my attention.  


“Do you have a moment?”  


“Uh… yeah?”  


I turned the Strider to face him and brought it to a stop, leaning forward slightly as the Captain eyed the machine warily before clearing his throat and turning his attention to me.  


“I just wanted to thank you for finding Lakhir and providing him the means of a safe return.”  


Confusion creased my face for a moment before memories of a half-naked man on a rock overlooking a small lake with the floating corpse of a Snapmaw in it came back and I nodded quickly.  


“Oh… uh… I-I’m glad.”  


“I have to say, though,” he continued, “despite the stories I’ve heard, I didn’t expect to ever see such a sight come through my gate.”  


I glanced down at the Strider for a moment before smirking, patting it on the neck as I looked back up at the Captain.  


“Certainly beats walking all the way to Meridian. I wouldn’t recommend trying it yourself, though.”  


He looked like he wanted to say more but simply shook his head, laughing quietly.  


“May the Sun light your journey.”  


I simply nodded in response before maneuvering the Strider past the bewildered guards and toward the path that ran past the main base portion of Daytower. Luckily, I was able to skirt around the majority of the crowds and simply head directly toward the trail leading down the mountain pass into the red sands below.  


Within only minutes, the temperature rose considerably, quickly reminding me of one of the reasons I hadn’t missed being back in this region lately. I glanced overhead, noting how low the sun was getting to the horizon, before sighing and scanning the terrain nearby for a suitable campsite. Nothing immediately provided a promising protection from the elements, so I decided to continue on and watch for some kind of large rock or other formation to provide shelter.  


As I continued, the sun began to fully set on the desert, casting the scenery in colors that drew my gaze for long enough that I didn’t notice the Strider wander off the path several times, the final time nearly bringing us directly into the path of a patrolling Sawtooth. Luckily, it happened to be facing away from us and I quickly yanked the wires of the Strider to the side, urging it to quickly gallop away before the heavily armored machine could give chase. Once we had returned to a normal walking speed, I let out a heavy sigh, rubbing my eyes with one hand.  


“I think that means it’s about time to set up camp for the night.”  


As I let my hand fall into my lap, once again, I glanced up and started so badly that I nearly fell off the back of the Strider. A large, metal facility had appeared on the horizon, a large disc-shaped construction pointed up toward the sky on the right side of it. Although it looked somewhat familiar to the one I remembered from the aftermath of the fight with Erend, I couldn’t recall seeing one in this area, before.  


I definitely couldn’t recall seeing one in such good condition.  


The top of the strange disc apparatus shone a steel-blue in the last rays of the setting sun, before the final few feet of light slid up and off it, plunging the entire facility into a dark silhouette. A moment later, I could have sworn I saw a small light on one part of it, before the entire disc lit up along its outside edge with bright, red lights.  


I yanked on the Strider’s wires, bringing it to a stop as I felt my heart pounding in my ears. Something compelled me to get closer, but at the same time a feeling of unease lifted the hair on the back of my neck. Something that was clearly built by the Old Ones shouldn’t be fully functioning, and appear to be in such good shape, out here, and yet…  


“ _It’s not real. Just a mirage._ ”  


Caused by what heat? The sun had set already.  


“ _Some kind of hallucination, then._ ”  


“Beautiful sight, isn’t it?”  


At the sound of a voice right beside me, my head whipped around to find an older woman staring straight ahead, seemingly at the strange building in the distance.  


“All the lights like all their own, little stars.”  


Something about her felt familiar, but I couldn’t place why. I eventually forced myself to tear my eyes away from her and let out a yelp of surprise as I found myself standing at the edge of a rather sheer drop-off, the flat, sandy ground easily almost a hundred yards below me. My mind was still reeling from trying to come to terms with suddenly standing on my own, rather than sitting on the back of the machine, when I suddenly felt the world tip and spin around me.  


“Like stars watching the stars.”  


Suddenly, something slammed into me with great force from behind and pain shot through my entire body, forcing a loud grunt from me. Immediately, the image of the strange, lit building was replaced with an indigo expanse peppered with miniature, bright lights. The pain slowly began to spread from my back, moving out across my shoulders and up my neck as a groan escaped my lips. I arched my back slightly as I reached behind me, but didn’t find any large rocks, fortunately, and I slowly lowered myself onto the ground, once again, arms splayed to either side.  


After a few more moments of staring up at the night sky, I forced myself to roll onto my side and pull myself onto my hands and knees. My temples throbbed for a moment as the edges of my vision dimmed, but everything quickly went back to normal as I took several slow, deep breaths. Finally, I was able to rise to my knees and look around, rubbing at the back of my neck with one hand.  


The Strider had stopped walking several yards away, its head turned toward me as if seemingly unable to believe that I had fallen off so easily and out of nowhere.  


“Don’t judge me like that,” I muttered, shooting it a dirty look before stiffly rising to my feet.  


Each step sent more pain shooting up my back, but it also slowly began to fade in severity.  


“At least we weren’t going that fast,” I sighed, approaching the Strider and carefully patting it on its haunches.  


The machine seemed ambivalent to me, instead shaking its head and idly scuffing the ground with its front hooves. I sighed and glanced around the surrounding area for signs of something that could be shelter for the night. Quickly, my eyes focused on a large boulder jutting from the ground up ahead and I nodded.  


“Worth checking out, at least.”  


I led the Strider toward the rock by the wires hanging from its neck, bringing it to a stop several feet away and drawing my spear.  


“ _Not worth it to just walk right on in when something else might be living here, already._ ”  


I carefully approached the boulder, tapping my Focus to bring up its scanning interface. No signs of small or large animals appeared in the darkness, but I still remained cautious as I drew closer. When no signs of motion or sounds of something living moving about came from under the rock, I let out the breath I had been holding and stashed my spear behind me, once again.  


“Looks good, I guess.”  


Within a few minutes, I had managed to gather a small pile of dried twigs and branches together and had struck a rather pitiful fire, but it was enough to see by in the deep shadow of the boulder. The Strider remained several yards away, idly grazing at the dirt as I dropped my bedroll beside the tiny blaze and undid the clasp to allow it to unroll. As soon as it did, I caught sight of the fur cloak I had stowed inside it and carefully unfolded it away from the flames. My fingers ran over the design stitched into the leather shoulder piece as a small smile tugged at my lips and I wrapped it around my shoulders.  


It had been warm, at first, when I had entered the sandy terrain, but now that the sun had set below the distant mountains, a wind almost as cold as in Nora territory had begun to blow, cutting straight through my clothing and my skin, it seemed. Immediately, I noted how warm it felt under the fur clothing and I let out a low sigh of contentment as I shifted my position on the bedroll, folding my legs before me and positioning the cloak so that it covered them, as well.  


“ _Time to deal with whatever the hell just happened._ ”  


With a small frown, I opened the Focus interface and navigated to the “Journals” section, eyeing the “Speaking Journals” section for a moment before opening the written half, instead. The last one seemed to be from before entering All Mother Mountain and also, after reading through it, seemingly another lifetime. I could barely remember actually writing any of the words in the entry, but instead felt almost like I was reading a message written to me by someone else.  


“ _That was… what, two days ago?_ ”  


With a heavy sigh, I navigated back to the main menu and opened a new entry.  


“Where to even start. All Mother Mountain was… certainly a revelation, just not quite the one I expected. I guess part of me still hoped that it would give me proof that Elisabet was still alive, and… well, I guess it did. I knew we looked incredibly alike, but hearing that the reason was because I’m an exact copy—a ‘reinstantiation,’ as GAIA called it—is enough to cause almost anyone to question a lot of things.  


“Am I a tool, created to be used by an ancient machine to achieve a purpose given to it by an ancient human being? Does that make me my own person, with my own choices to make and my own path to discover, or…”  


I paused, staring at the last word on the display, a slowly blinking line sitting just after it as I tried to think about where the thought had actually been taking me. To tell the truth, the words seemed to have simply appeared of their own accord and my mind had finally caught up with them.  


“…or is this just history playing out again with all the same players?”  


With a heavy sigh, I shook my head, rubbing my temples slowly before finishing up the journal entry by recollecting the actual events that had occurred over the past two days.  


“ _I’m going to need all of these to keep my head straight, it seems._ ”  


When I finished detailing the strange vision of the ancient facility brought to life and the strange woman beside me on a high bluff, I saved the journal and went back to the main screen. The reminder to head to the location Sylens had indicated to take on the Eclipse’s network floated in the air to my right as I turned my head until the yellow diamond that marked the location appeared overlaid over the image of the rock formation where I had seen the strange building, earlier. The only thing that stood on top of the bluffs, now, was the synthetic shape projected by the Focus, along with the numbers that told me I still had a depressingly long way to go.  


“ _Meridian isn’t exactly close, and you have to go past it…_ ”  


With a heavy sigh, I closed the interface and stretched out on the bedroll, positioning myself on my side so that I faced the rapidly dying fire before me.  


“ _Maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea to stop in for a little bit, too…_ ”  


I didn’t exactly have all the time in the world, though.  


A smirk tugged at my lips at the thought before a yawn quickly interrupted it and I shifted my position slightly, making sure that I was fully covered by the cloak before closing my eyes and allowing myself to drift off into sleep.  


I remained suspended in the darkness of unconsciousness for a few moments before I felt a warmth radiating from somewhere before me and I begrudgingly cracked my eyes open. The small fire I had created out of twigs and dried brush had been replaced by an actual campfire, complete with split logs from trees that I hadn’t seen anywhere nearby, before.  


“ _Another dream…_ ”  


“Well, of course, what else would it be?”  


The voice immediately caused me to sit up straight, throwing off the cloak over me as I reached for one of my weapons, only to find none of them nearby. A large, rocky surface loomed over me as it had when I went to sleep, but none of my gear other than my bedroll and the cloak remained. The Strider in the distance had also disappeared, leaving the open expanse of sandy ground empty save for the scraggly bushes that somehow clung to life in the desert heat and drought.  


It took me several long moments to realize that another figure sat across the blazing campfire from me, knees held tightly to her chest with one arm as she poked at the base of one of the burning logs with a stick. I stared intently at her for several seconds as I tried to make sense of who the figure was, only for my heart rate to skyrocket as she glanced up from the fire toward me. The face illuminated by the light of the flames was undoubtedly my own, but everything else about her seemed foreign.  


“You don’t have to look so shocked,” she said, regarding me with an unreadable expression. “Have you seen your own reflection lately?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Who dat?
> 
> Better find out next week.


	8. Two Sides of the Same Coin

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How is it already February? January barely seemed to have happened.
> 
> Anyway, today I ended up helping a friend shoot a black metal-style video outdoors... in a few inches of snow... while it was misting rain. Honestly, the worst part was when everything started to freeze and the entire yard/grassy field that we were filming in turned into one huge sheet of ice. That and I felt bad for the poor girl they had acting as a reanimated corpse, because she had to lie on a freezing table for quite a while with no coat or any semblance of warm clothing (she was clothed, but none of it was made for winter weather).
> 
> So yeah, quite a Sunday.
> 
> This week's chapter is a little shorter than the other more recent ones, but it is **packed**.
> 
> Remember that random character from the end of last week? Well, it's time for a proper introduction.
> 
> Hopefully this will start to give some idea of what's going on in Aloy's head and in her world in this story.
> 
> Enjoy, and feel free to let me know if you figured this part out in the last chapter, already, or not.

“I-I…”  


“I guess it doesn’t usually talk back, unless you talk first, though…” she seemed to ignore me, instead turning her attention back to poking the edge of the flames with the stick in her hand.  


The lookalike was dressed in a dark green jacket made out of a strange, smooth material that was undoubtedly created by something other than nature and a pair of tan leggings that also seemed to be made of another unnatural material, leading down to a pair of brown boots laced with string that sported a two-tone spiraling pattern. Her hair was pulled back with one tie, sticking out of it in a cascading tail that reached to just below her shoulders, although a few rogue strands seemed to have escaped restraint and hung in her face, the tip of one evidently falling into the corner of her mouth as she blew it out with a small puff of air.  


“I would say to take a picture, but… well, that’s not exactly possible, is it?”  


“Who are you?”  


She finally turned her attention from the fire, regarding me with the same unreadable expression for a moment before a grin tugged at her lips.  


“Guess.”  


Her expression seemed playful, but… I could sense something else beneath the surface.  


“Well, I’d say that you’re me, but…”  


“But…?”  


“But something tells me you aren’t.”  


“Yes and no.”  


“So… you’re… _her_.”  


“Her?”  


Her tone was clearly goading me into playing along with her game, but she also didn’t seem as if she was going to relent no matter what I did, so I sighed, a shiver running down my spine.  


“Elisabet.”  


The image of the young Elisabet’s grin grew wider as she laughed quietly, poking her stick at the log nearest her more emphatically for a moment before removing the tip from the blaze and blowing at the small wisp of smoke that curled from it.  


“So… is that it? You and I are just… here?”  


“Well, kinda.”  


I looked to her curiously but said nothing. It seemed she liked games, so I figured I might as well play some of my own.  


“You and me are a lot alike, in addition to the—y’know— _obvious._ ”  


She gestured to her face before clearing her throat.  


“We’ve got a lot on our minds… too much for someone our age, a lot of people would say.”  


“Yeah?”  


“Mhm,” she nodded, brushing the loose strands of hair at the edge of her face back behind one ear. “Can’t say that mine wins over ‘the end of the fucking world,’ though.”  


“I didn’t realize it was a contest.”  


“When is it not?”  


The young Elisabet looked shocked for a moment before her face returned to the playful smirk, once again.  


“Anyway, that whole business at Eleuthia with GAIA…”  


She tapped the stick against the top of her boots for a moment before pausing and looking over at me.  


“Trippy.”  


Confusion creased my face as her amusement only seemed to grow. With each new grin or smirk, my unease toward the sort-of-lookalike grew. This version of Elisabet didn’t seem the same as the one I had “spoken” to and seen in the recordings of the Old Ones. She seemed more youthful and energetic, definitely, but there was a hint of something darker beneath it all. I wasn’t sure I liked it.  


“So, instead of asking yourself ‘what would Elisabet do?’ when you’re lost and confused, do you just say ‘what did I used to do?’”  


“I don’t follow.”  


“Eh, bad joke,” she waved dismissively, rolling the stick in her fingers for a moment before letting out a sigh. “Listen, I’m not gonna lie and tell you that some serious shit isn’t going down, because it is. The question now is: how are you not gonna fuck it all up?”  


“Excuse me?”  


“Yeah, you heard me,” she shot back, her tone a little more biting than before. “Being the one person who can actually do anything about the end of the world is kind of a big responsibility. Sure, you’ve got helpers and people you can sucker into maybe dying for a cause they can’t even fully comprehend, but ultimately, it’s all going to come back around to—”  


She paused, lifting her stick and jabbing it toward me, the tip of it stopping only a foot or so from my face.  


“You.”  


I batted the tip away as the same, playful smirk appeared on her face, once again.  


“You’re not telling me anything that hasn’t already occurred to me.”  


“What did you expect? I’m not exactly some omnipotent god.”  


She suddenly trailed off, cocking her head to the side as she stared vacantly over the top of the fire for a moment before letting out a short, dry laugh.  


“Now that’d be something…”  


“I’m starting to doubt you’re even any real version of Elisabet.”  


“What makes me any less real than your _perception_ of her, anyway?” the image across from me spat. “You never met her in person. You _perceived_ her world through what you _believed_ to be her eyes, but what makes that real? People don’t usually relive memories of their ancestors out of nowhere.”  


“I-I… there were…”  


“Were what?”  


“There were… records left…”  


“Which ones?”  


I ground my teeth at the image’s insistent questioning, staring daggers back at the similarly stone-jawed image of the young Elisabet.  


“Sylens knew. He found references to the visions I saw and knew Elisabet and I shared a connection.”  


“Hmm… I suppose he did say something about that.”  


The smirk returned to the image’s face as I found my hands clenching into fists at my sides.  


“What’s your point?”  


“You said I wasn’t real, so am I just supposed to take that lying down?”  


My confusion must have been evident as she chuckled, digging the tip of her stick into the ground and drawing small patterns with it.  


“Guess you don’t know that phrase, huh?”  


“You’re enjoying this.”  


“If I wasn’t laughing I’d be crying.”  


Her tone was almost sing-song and she shot me a look that was clearly supposed to be amusing, but something told me it wasn’t entirely a joke.  


“So, what are you going to do now?”  


“To you?”  


“Well, I didn’t mean in that way, but now that you’ve brought it up…”  


I simply glared back at her for a moment or two before she let out a short laugh.  


“As I thought. Anyway, I meant about the whole ‘near-demonic AI wants you dead so it can kill everyone and everything by manipulating a bunch of cultists’ thing. What would you do?”  


“I’m working on it.”  


“Still? I hate to break it to you, but you don’t have a whole lot of time left.”  


She raised her right arm, tapping her wrist as she made a clicking sound with her tongue against her teeth.  


“Time’s running out.”  


With a sigh, I fell back down on the bedroll, staring up at the rocky surface that stretched overhead.  


“Take a nap? Good idea.”  


The sarcasm was thick in her tone, but I didn’t indulge her by looking over at her.  


“It’s not going to do me any good to get no sleep.”  


Suddenly, the young Elisabet appeared over me, her face coming into view directly over mine, less than a foot away.  


“Hey, you know what the beauty of this whole conversation is? You’re totally asleep during it.”  


With a sigh, I closed my eyes, trying to block her out, but something poked me in the forehead and my hand swatted at it before my eyes even opened.  


“Seriously? I just told you—”  


“This isn’t me going to sleep, this is me ignoring you and hoping that since this is my dream, I can make you go away.”  


The image of Elisabet tilted her head back and began to let out a loud bout of laughter, slowly leaning out of my view as I sighed, rubbing my eyes tiredly.  


“You think you’re that much in control of your own mind, right now?”  


Her voice came from beside me and I turned my head to the side to find her lying between myself and the fire, her head propped up on one hand.  


“You hesitated.”  


She smirked as she shook her head to try to remove the loose strands of hair from in front of her face, once again.  


“If I’m asleep, why do I feel so tired?”  


The young Elisabet sighed, shaking her head.  


“We do share the same amount of attitude, that’s for sure.”  


“If it’s anything like you’ve shown so far, I don’t think I want it.”  


“Too bad.”  


She shrugged as I rolled my eyes and looked up toward the rocky ceiling, once again. This time, however, the boulder was gone, leaving me staring up at the night sky. The light and warmth from the campfire also seemed to fade away, leaving me in a cool darkness that prompted me to draw the cloak up to my shoulders, once again. With a slow breath in through my nose, I closed my eyes, hoping that maybe I could slip back into the darkness of a dreamless sleep. A moment later, however, another voice broke the stillness, drawing me back to the strange “waking dream” feeling.  


“Beautiful sight, isn’t it?”  


The hair on the back of my neck stood on end as I slowly opened my eyes, still finding the starry sky overhead. As I turned my head to the left, however, I saw the same older woman as before, but now lying on her back with her hands clasped behind her head. She was wearing a similar jacket to the one the image of the younger Elisabet had sported moments ago, but I couldn’t make out its exact color in the darkness.  


Confusion and unease rolled over me as I opened my mouth to ask a question when a warm feeling suddenly flooded through me, starting in my chest and spreading throughout my body. The tension in my limbs slowly relaxed as I found a small smile pulling at my lips.  


“Yeah, it is.”  


My lips moved and I heard my own voice, but the actual thought to speak didn’t seem to process. It was a truly strange feeling, almost akin to watching the videos Elisabet had recorded while I had been experiencing her world during our shared visions.  


“I tried to count them all, once, as a kid,” the woman continued, her voice soft as I could just make out the faintest hints of a smile on her face, as well. “I lost track after a hundred and fifty.”  


We both laughed softly as I shifted my position under the cloak. My arm slid out from under one side and I noticed that a sleeve of some kind now extended down to my wrist and I held my hand up before me to get a better look at it. The fabric of whatever jacket I seemed to be wearing looked nearly identical to the young Elisabet’s, and something told me that there was a good chance it _was_ the same jacket.  


“You know, I once thought I was gonna be an astronaut?”  


I lowered my arm, letting my hand come to rest on top of my chest and feeling the strange, smooth fabric of the jacket beneath my fingers. A shiver ran down my spine but I forced myself to ignore the strange sensation and looked over at the woman beside me.  


“Yeah?”  


“Funny how I ended up doing just about the opposite.”  


She finally turned her head slightly to look over at me.  


“Spent my whole life digging around in the dirt and working the Earth instead of exploring the stars.”  


I didn’t say anything, still somewhat trying to comprehend the strange sensations of the jacket beneath my hand and the warm, secure feeling that relaxed the tension in my muscles and filled me with a feeling of comfort, even when no fire was nearby. It was all complete sensory overload. Whatever that was.  


“You seem to be on a track to do something similar,” the woman finally said, nudging my arm with her elbow.  


“What? Says who?”  


Once again, the words spilled from my mouth effortlessly, but I had no conscious thought to actually say them.  


“Well, a little different than me, exactly, Miss Smarty-Pants.”  


We both laughed as she tried to elbow me harder and I wriggled away. Suddenly, something out of the corner of my eye caught my attention and I glanced over. Another figure was standing nearby, prompting me to instantly grow tense, but as I focused on the silhouette more closely, I began to make out details in the light from the sky overhead and my unease turned to confusion.  


An older Elisabet, as I remembered her from the days at Zero Dawn stood nearby, a sad smile on her face. She was dressed in the baggy, red top and blue leggings I remembered from her final day at the facility before…  


I swallowed the hard lump in my throat at the thought and the image of Elisabet seemed to turn her gaze from the other woman to me, the same look still in her eyes.  


“Don’t be so sad, kiddo,” she said, her voice soft and reassuring.  


“But…”  


“No ‘buts,’ you hear me?”  


I fell silent, unsure how to respond as the image of Elisabet laughed quietly, stepping closer and taking a seat on the ground beside me as I pulled myself into a sitting position, as well.  


“I already told you, you’re—”  


“Not alone.”  


She nodded, rubbing her hands together before her as I noticed her rocking back and forth slightly.  


“What does that mean, though?”  


“I… I’m not sure, exactly,” she said slowly, “but… I think we’ll figure it out.”  


“We?”  


“I’m here now, aren’t I?”  


“In a dream…”  


“Pssh, who says dreams suddenly don’t count for anything?”  


“Well—”  


“You know what, don’t answer,” she cut in, raising one hand to stop me. “Talking about it might bring her back.”  


Confusion creased my face as the image of Elisabet laughed, dropping her hand in her lap, once again.  


“Listen, as much as I don’t like Sylens, and I sense you don’t either, you’re on the right path. You can’t just sit around and wait for HADES and this cult to come to you; by the time that happens, it’s already going to be too late. I was no military strategist, but something’s telling me the ‘wait and hope for the best’ strategy isn’t the most effective one.”  


“So… I need to take down their network and then… what, charge into their palace on my own and try to convince them to give up?”  


“Unfortunately, I don’t think reason is going to work, this time.”  


Silence fell over us for a moment before I nervously swallowed to clear the lump in my throat.  


“So… you think I need to… kill all of them?”  


“No, no, that’s not what I’m saying, either,” she said, shaking her head. “HADES, in a perfect world, would be contained, but… something tells me they won’t give up their ‘god’ without a fight.”  


I shook my head slowly, shifting my position so that I faced Elisabet directly.  


“But… how does that not mean killing people?”  


“A show of force, Aloy. Scare them.”  


“But… I’m just one person!”  


Frustration was beginning to build in me as I tried to think through what she was saying. Suddenly, a pair of hands gripped my arms just above the elbows and I jumped slightly, looking up to find Elisabet leaning toward me, her hands holding me in a firm grasp.  


“And just one person is enough to scare their ‘god.’”  


I stared back at her for several long seconds before nodding slowly. With a heavy sigh, Elisabet gave my arms one last squeeze before leaning back, placing her hands on her knees.  


“It’s been forever since I’ve seen that jacket,” she commented, smiling softly.  


I glanced down at the strange piece of clothing before looking back up at her.  


“Who is—?”  


My question was cut off as I suddenly found myself staring at a blurry image of what appeared to be a large, red mass. I blinked rapidly for a moment or two before my vision cleared, revealing it to be a desert landscape, although it was turned on its side. Confusion settled over me before I realized what was happening and I sat bolt upright, the cloak I had worn like a blanket pooling around my waist.  


The pitiful campfire I had made last night was long cold, not even a hint of smoke rising from it by this point, while the bright morning sunlight inched ever closer across the red sand as the sun rose behind the boulder I had taken shelter under before falling asleep. The Strider I had overridden yesterday made a few strange noises, lifting its head from its grazing of—something—and seemed to look toward me with curiosity for a moment before returning to its previous task.  


With a sigh, I rubbed at my eyes to clear away the last remnants of sleep before stretching my arms out to either side and arching my back. A slight soreness had settled into my muscles, which I tried to dispel by stretching various directions before neatly folding the cloak and kneeling beside the bedroll. It didn’t take long to repack both items and secure them with the leather cord that bound the bedroll for carrying it during the day, so I secured it on my person and rose to my feet.  


The Strider lifted its head as I approached, watching me all the way until I reached it and gently pat it on the side.  


“Still a long way to go, friend.”  


The Strider showed no indication of understanding me, but I hadn’t necessarily expected it to, anyway. With a grunt of exertion, I dragged myself onto its back and gripped the wires extending behinds it neck, once again.  


“Still beats walking.”  


With that, I gently squeezed the sides of the Strider with my heels and shook the cords slightly to urge it onward into an easy canter that I soon goaded into a full gallop. There was no point in dragging out this journey any longer than it already had to be.


	9. Detour

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's Monday. I'm sick of winter.
> 
> Anyway, not a super long chapter, but all I can say is: bear with me.
> 
> May need to update some tags for this story...

As I drew closer to the rock formation where I had seen the strange building the night before, I glanced toward the top of the steep bluff that faced me, but saw no indication of any building, current or ruined, atop it.  


“ _You already know it was a hallucination, stop worrying._ ”  


Still, something about the vision wouldn’t leave my mind, no matter how hard I tried. As I reached the base of the sheer rock wall, I happened to notice what appeared to be a narrow path dug into the very face of the red stone. I slowed the Strider to a walk as I studied its path, marking each twist and turn until it seemed to reach the top. The machine came to a full stop as I pulled on the wires, my jaw anxiously working to chew the inside of my cheek as the internal debate whether or not to appease my curiosity raged. Finally, with a growl of frustration, I turned the Strider toward the path and made my way toward the tall, rocky cliff beside me.  


The path was barely wide enough for the Strider, but something told me I also didn’t want to walk all the way up it on my own. The straight sections were no problem for the machine, though, as it plowed ahead, however the turns in the path proved nerve-wracking as I had to try to carefully steer the plodding beast around tight corners with sheer drop-offs on multiple sides. After what felt like hours, I wiped the sweat from my forehead and glanced up to find that I was nearly at the top. The sun hadn’t even reached the middle of the sky, so I reasoned that while it may have already been an hour or two since I awoke, I had by no means wasted the entire day… yet.  


Several tedious and hair-raising turns in the path later, we finally crested the top of the rock formation, revealing a flat mesa with patches of tall, brown grass waving in the wind that had begun to pick up, the higher we climbed. I scanned the entire open ground, searching for something that told me the long trip up the path was worth it, but nothing immediately stood out to me, so I reached for my Focus.  


Using it to scan across the ground, I was just about to admit defeat, and that I had been crazy for thinking I would find anything here, when the interface seemed to lock onto something and a blue box with some text in it appeared over the real world.  


“Unknown origin.”  


“Wait, like… a signal?”  


I carefully moved the Strider toward whatever the Focus had located and finally brought it to a halt when the interface indicated I was essentially on top of the item. Squinting at the ground, nothing immediately presented itself, so I leaned over the side of the machine to get a closer look. Something seemed to glint in the sunlight and I cocked my head slightly, trying to make it out amidst the grass.  


Suddenly, the ground seemed to shake and buckle underneath the Strider. It made an alarmed sound as it began to panic, bucking wildly as the ground continued to move. I gripped the wires tightly, trying to maintain my balance, but the Strider suddenly reared onto its hind legs. There wasn’t enough time to react as its metal neck slammed into my forehead and I saw stars flash before my eyes. I became aware of the sensation of falling backward as I scrambled for the wires I had been holding onto, previously, but my hands grasped at the empty air.  


The next thing I knew, my back slammed into the ground and all of the air burst from my lungs in a single rush, leaving me wheezing and gasping for air as my heart hammered in my rib cage. The same pain as the previous night shot through me, although this time it suddenly felt much harder to collect myself. A particular point on my back felt incredibly painful and I could only assume that I had landed on a rock. As I tried to reached behind me to feel for it, I noticed a flurry of motion approaching and turned my head to the side just in time to see a metallic hoof slam down inches from my face. My eyes widened as I instantly attempted to roll to my left, ignoring the burning pain in my back.  


I managed to flip onto my stomach, when I sensed something large bearing down on me, and I didn’t have time to react. Mind-numbing, nausea-inducing pain suddenly exploded from my left side as I heard a loud crack split the air. A scream of pain tore its way out of my throat as I attempted to quickly roll away from what had landed on me. I ended up tumbling across the ground in an uncontrolled roll until I finally threw out my arms to stop me, sending an excruciating amount of pain down my side, once again. A sound almost like a whimper escaped my lips as I slowly turned onto my back, breathing quickly and shallowly as anything deeper than a panting breath sent waves of pain shooting through my torso.  


As I turned over, I didn’t find the bucking Strider, fortunately, but my eyes widened as they took in an entirely new problem. A much bigger one. Much, much bigger.  


The top portion of a Deathbringer continued to shake and jerk about as it lifted from the ground, dirt, rocks, and sand pouring off the edges. Its various parts whirred and whined in protest as I noticed that it seemed to have trouble operating several of its legs. The large gun on its left side appeared to be missing, although the one on the right was still intact, albeit moving in short, jerking spasms. The red light in the center, the closest thing the machine had to an eye, suddenly seemed to point directly at me and I noticed that the gun that had been jerking about aimlessly seemed to be slowly but surely aiming in my direction.  


“ _Oh no… no, no, no, no…_ ”  


I scrambled to reach behind me, letting out a cry of pain as the sensation renewed in force along my left side, but I tried to push past it. I found the smooth, metal edge of part of my bow and quickly attempted to wrap my fingers around it. As my grip tightened, I swore the edges of my vision grew darker, but I clenched my jaw and quickly attempted to pull the bow up and over my head.  


As I did, I fumbled with it until I held it normally before me. My hands were shaking as I reached for the quiver of arrows at my side, only to find it empty. True panic set in as my head whipped to the side, scanning the ground nearby for any signs of the spilled ammunition. Instantly, my eyes locked onto one nearby and I reached toward it with my right hand, but the feathered end seemed to be just outside my grasp.  


With a cry of pain, I pushed myself toward it with my feet, finally feeling the feathers under my fingertips. I dragged it toward me and nocked it on the string. With a deep breath, I positioned myself on the ground so that I could draw the bowstring back, gritting my teeth against the pain that felt like my entire left side had been lit on fire. My eyes were locked on the glowing core that protruded from the front of the Deathbringer, seemingly trying to vent the heat from inside the machine as it struggled to rise from its rocky grave.  


With a painful gasp, I let loose the arrow and watched it arc through the air in slow motion. After what felt like an eternity, I watched the tip bury itself in the glowing core. A strange, whirring sound filled the air for a moment before an explosion rocked the Deathbringer, sending out a shockwave that not only obliterated the glowing component, but also ripped a good deal of the armor off the top part of its body. With a sputtering, alarmed sound, the Deathbringer suddenly began to slow its motions before the red light on its front blinked out and the entire machine crashed back into its grave, all motion ceasing a second or two later.  


Once it hadn’t moved for another second or two, I dropped the bow on the ground as I fell flat on my back, letting out a scream of pain as I finally relaxed my muscles. I felt sick to my stomach. I felt like the entire left side of my torso had been shattered like a piece of glass. My left arm barely had any feeling, and my side was in a strange balance between incredible pain and numbness.  


A dry heave wracked my body and I tried to roll onto my right side. As soon as I did, I coughed and vomited across the sandy ground. This happened several more times before there appeared to be nothing left to retch up and I simply spit out the saliva in my mouth. My head was pounding as I tried to take as small of breaths as possible to prevent the pain from flaring up anymore.  


“ _Get up._ ”  


I clenched my jaw as I tried to position my right arm under me.  


“ _Get up._ ”  


I managed to lift my torso off the ground with my elbow, craning my head to look across the open ground.  


“ _Get up._ ”  


The Strider hadn’t run off the edge of the Mesa or back down the path, and seemed to have calmed considerably.  


“ _Get up._ ”  


I shoved myself into a kneeling position with a grunt that transitioned into another scream of pain, my right hand instantly shooting to my left side but pausing before actually touching it.  


“ _Get up._ ”  


My fingers hovered over my side for a moment before gingerly poking at it; even with the gentlest touch, the pain was unimaginable.  


“Get up.”  


I lazily looked in the direction of the Strider to see the faint silhouette of a person standing between me and it.  


“Get up.”  


Confusion creased my face even as I attempted to brace one leg in a kneeling position to help me stand.  


“Get up!”  


With another cry of pain, I forced myself into a standing position, staggering in several directions before finding my footing and coming to a stop. My jaw was clenched tightly as I sucked in each breath through my teeth. The silhouette was still between the Strider and me, but I couldn’t make out any more details than before.  


“Walk!”  


I began to trudge forward, leaning to my left slightly as each step sent new waves of pain shooting through me, the worst of it now spreading from just my side to the left side of my back.  


“Keep going!”  


At first I could have sworn the voice was in my head, like the manifestation of my own will urging me forward, but now…  


“Keep walking!”  


I shook my head as I squinted against the bright sunlight. The silhouette seemed so familiar; it was even starting to have color. A flash of red appeared near where the top of its head should be. A strange thought crossed my mind as I continued to stagger toward it and the Strider.  


“Nil?”  


“Come on!”  


I blinked and shook my head, realizing that the color wasn’t the same as the feathers on his ornate headdress, but much more like…  


“Don’t stop!”  


The figure seemed to be standing next to the Strider, waiting for me to close the last few yards. By now, there was no mistaking who it was.  


“Get on.”  


I laughed dryly as I approached the Strider, gingerly placing one hand on its back. I could have sworn I felt another hand on top of mine before a strange shudder passed through me and I dry heaved, once again. After I stood up straight, I looked toward the Strider’s head to see it looking back at me; although it wasn’t really capable of emotions, it seemed… perplexed.  


“You little bastard…”  


Another laugh escaped me as I braced myself for the torture of pulling myself onto its back. Before I could doubt myself, I gripped the wires near the machine’s neck and braced my knees. As I pushed off the ground and pulled at the wires, a mind-numbing pain shot through my entire torso, drawing darkness into my vision until it almost entirely obscured it before shooting back to the edges. Several long moments of struggling with my legs to position myself on the Strider’s back later, I was finally in a somewhat normal seated position, despite my posture leaning badly to my left.  


“Really… gonna need to stop in Meridian… now…”  


With a careful breath in through my clenched teeth, I prepared to set the Strider back toward the path off the mesa. Just as I was about to head toward where I remembered the end of the trail, however, I caught sight of something on the ground and heaved a heavy sigh.  


“Can’t forget that…”  


I carefully maneuvered the strider alongside my bow that I had left near the pool of vomit before reaching behind my back and drawing my spear. My left hand kept a death grip on the machine’s wires, despite the pain that came with clenching those muscles so tightly, and carefully held the tip of the spear out. After several excruciating seconds, I managed to slip the curved tip under the wooden bow and lift it off the ground. The bow slid down the shaft of the spear as I tilted it toward me, eventually allowing me to grab it with my other hand and carefully separate the two weapons, once again.  


Slinging both of them onto my back was another exercise in excruciating pain, but I finally managed to secure both of them before letting out a heavy sigh and leaning my forehead against the neck of the Strider.  


“This was… a terrible idea…”  


“Real smart, I’ll say.”  


I opened one eye and tilted my head to the side so I could see the source of the voice, only to find what appeared to be the young Elisabet standing beside the Strider, looking back toward the carcass of the Deathbringer with her hands on her hips.  


“Not… not the time…”  


I squeezed my eyes shut tightly for a moment before reopening them to find the image was now gone, leaving me alone as before, thankfully.  


The task of navigating the Strider back down the twisting path was even more perilous than it had been coming up, but I finally managed to make it to the bottom with only a few close calls. By this point, however, the sun was well overhead and I estimated that I had wasted almost exactly half the day.  


“New plan…”  


I brought up the Focus’s interface and managed to get to the map display. After a few seconds of scanning the nearby area, I found the icon that indicated Meridian and I jabbed at it with two of my fingers. A message appeared over the map: “set new destination?”  


“Yes,” I panted aloud and the option on the left flashed for a moment before the yellow diamond that indicated my destination shifted to its new location. “That’s… still… kind of far…”  


I closed the Focus interface and groaned, gripping the wires of the Strider tightly in my right hand as I let my left arm hang almost entirely limp at my side.  


“Yah!”  


I spurred the Strider forward, feeling it quickly pick up speed as I guided it in the vague direction of the yellow marker from the Focus. The numbers above the marker quickly began to wind down, but it still didn’t feel as fast as I wished.  


Tall, looming mesas and other formations made of red rocks flew past, all of them a blur as I focused intently on not passing out on the back of a speeding Strider. I had already fallen off of it twice in the span of two days, and I was particularly not looking to do it again, now. The tall formations gave way to steep cliffs falling away to my left and I made sure to keep the Strider well away from them, although still on the worn path that served as a road through the desert landscape.  


Finally, I caught sight of something to my left and quickly glanced over. I could just make out distinctly man-made shapes on top of a tall, narrow rock formation in the middle of an otherwise low-lying landscape and breathed a sigh of relief that came out much more like a wheeze.  


“Almost there…”  


I could make out figures on the path ahead of me, all of which quickly dove out of the way at the sight of a Strider bearing down on them. Thankfully, I managed to avoid actually hitting anyone before reaching the small field of tents and wooden carts that signaled the merchants camped outside the bridge entrance to the Carja capital city.  


I pulled hard on the Strider’s wires, bringing it to a slow walk before finally a full stop. Dozens of pairs of bewildered eyes watched me unceremoniously slide off the back of the machine and nearly collapse in the dirt, but I managed to right myself at the last second and stagger forward, leaving the docile machine behind.  


Voices murmured and spoke in hushed tones around me as I limped past, but I simply tried to block all of them out. None of them were offering to help me, anyway. As I finally reached the stone bridge, I noticed several of the Carja guards glance over at me before suddenly turning their full attention to the limping, wheezing Nora girl dragging herself past them. One of them shouted something to his comrades behind him before leaving the merchant he had been talking to and stepping over to me.  


I couldn’t make out what he said to me at first, but I felt his hand on the back of my left shoulder and I let out a groan of pain, causing him to quickly remove it.  


“Are you all right?”  


I let out a short laugh before shaking my head slowly.  


“I’ve sent… for… he will… soon.”  


The sound of his voice seemed to be fading in and out as I noticed the darkness beginning to creep into the edges of my vision, once again. The next thing I knew, my left knee buckled and I staggered in that direction, only stopping when the Carja guard blocked my fall and gingerly held me up, once again. He shouted something, but I couldn’t make out any words as I felt my stomach heaving, but there was nothing left to expel.  


Suddenly, a new voice cut through the haze that surrounded me, its tone immediately recognizable, although I wasn’t able to put a face to it, or even truly understand the specific words, at first. I lifted my head to try to see where it was coming from and found that my vision was incredibly blurry. Blinking seemed to do little to help, except make the sunlight brighter each time. I could just make out the broad shape of a man approaching and caught sight of a splash of orange against his outline.  


Finally, actual words seemed to break through the haze around me, my vision clearing, as well.  


“Aloy? Fire and spit, what happened to you?”  


“Erend?”  


The look of shock on his face nearly made me laugh for a moment before I suddenly felt all of the strength draining from my limbs and the darkness began to cloud my vision, but I was able to gasp out one last word before everything truly faded away and left me in the void of unconsciousness.  


“Help.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp.


	10. ICU

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's Monday, my dudes (and another denominations).
> 
> Time for a bit of a hefty chapter.
> 
> The title should give you an idea what's up.

I had no idea how long I felt left suspended in darkness, but I started to wonder if maybe this was just all there was, now. As I became aware of sounds in the distance, I desperately clung to them, attempting to drag myself toward any semblance of the real world. Eventually, the sounds became distinguishable as voices, although the actual words were still impossible to decipher. As I tried to focus on each syllable, they slowly began to grow clearer, although it still sounded as if I were underwater.  


The entire process seemed to take hours, when suddenly I became aware of a strange whistling sound in my ears. Moments later, I became aware that something had drastically changed. I tried to pinpoint what it was for several long moments before realizing that it was so simple that I had merely taken it for granted: sound.  


The ambient sounds of a quiet room suddenly surrounded me in perfectly clear quality. I could hear the faint sounds of fabric fluttering in the breeze, birdsong in the distance, as well as what seemed to be a general hum of voices and activity, although none of it was remotely close enough to distinguish individual words or people.  


“ _One thing at a time…_ ”  


My eyelids slowly fluttered open, the motion seemingly taking a monumental amount of energy, but I was only greeted with a blurry, brown mass before me. A moment later, I was thrown back into darkness and I began to panic, but quickly realized that I could still hear everything the same as before.  


I tried two more times unsuccessfully to keep my eyes open, but finally on the third time I succeeded. The brown mass that I had seen before seemed to be a stone ceiling, a soft golden glow spreading across it from the left. I lazily turned my head to the side, feeling the soreness in my neck muscles as they protested against the motion. The bright, golden light seemed to be shining in through a window set into the far wall, a pair of dark blue curtains gently fluttering in the breeze, revealing themselves to be the sound I had been hearing this entire time.  


With great effort, I began to wiggle my fingers and toes, bringing feeling back to them with each passing second. It was almost like the feeling of thawing out in front of a roaring fire after braving the winter weather in the mountains. Eventually, I was able to bend my knees and elbows and I took a deep breath before trying to lift my arms. A groan escaped my lips as pain shot across my shoulders from the effort and I let them fall to the surface beneath me, once again; whatever it was, it was soft and… rather comfortable.  


I ran my fingers slowly over the surface before turning my head to the side, once again, and glancing at what lay beneath me. White fabric stretched out before me before suddenly dropping off to reveal the brown stone of the wall and floor beyond the edge of what I could only assume was a pillow.  


“ _Where am I?_ ”  


I attempted to lift my neck to get a better view of the room, but the pain that shot down my spine was too great, as well as the effort seemingly requiring more energy than I had available. With a heavy sigh, my head fell back on the pillow and I squirmed slightly on the bedding. A sharp pain shot through my left side and I sucked in a breath through my teeth, my fingers clenching into fists at my sides for a moment or two until the feeling had passed.  


“ _Okay, try not to do that anymore._ ”  


Just then, I heard the sound of muffled voices and I attempted to position my head so I could look past my feet, but I wasn’t entirely successful. The voices grew louder until they seemed to be just outside the room. They sounded like two women, but neither of them was immediately familiar. A moment later, the sound of the door swinging open filled the room and I shifted slightly, still trying to look past my feet to see whoever had entered, but my view remained blocked.  


At my motion, however, I heard both women gasp and the creaking door stopped suddenly.  


“She’s awake!”  


“Summon the Captain, he asked to be notified when she woke.”  


The sound of hurried footsteps echoed from the hallway outside as a woman slowly came into view at the foot of the bed. Her tanned skin almost blended in with the wall behind her, but her bright red clothing providing a striking contrast that only seemed to fill the room with color as the sunlight hit it.  


“You… are awake, aren’t you?”  


I tried to respond, but my voice didn’t want to function, only allowing me to emit a sound that I could only describe as a rasping groan.  


“One moment.”  


She quickly moved to the right side of the bed and I heard the sound of glass soft clinking before she appeared over me, holding a small cup in her hands.  


“Drink slowly.”  


She removed one hand from under the cup and gently placed it behind my head, supporting it as she slowly raised it toward the drink. Once she had lifted it a good several inches from the pillow, she brought the cup to my lips and let out a small trickle of water spill over my lips. I attempted to swallow, but the motion seemed difficult at first, leading to me coughing and nearly spitting most of the water back out. She pulled the cup away as her fingers gently massaged my scalp.  


“It’s okay, take it slow…”  


Once my coughing fit had subsided, she tried again, this time with more success. The small rivulet of water flowed over my dried tongue and immediately left the rest of my mouth aching for the same moisture. After a few short bursts of tiny amounts of water, I was able to take full, normal sips from the cup. Once it was drained, the woman slowly laid my head back on the pillow and moved away from the bed.  


“H-how… how l—”  


“How long have you been out?”  


I nodded gingerly, licking my lips against the rough, chapped feeling that had suddenly made itself known.  


“It’s… been a little while.”  


I rolled my head slightly to look over at the woman as she appeared beside me, once again, a slight grimace on her face.  


“Tell… tell me…”  


“Three days, more or less.”  


“Th-three… three…?”  


My voice was barely more than a squeak as I felt my heart begin to hammer in my chest. I attempted to push myself into a sitting position, but the same intense pain shot through my side and I let out a moan, quickly falling back onto the bedding as the woman winced, quickly placing her hand on my shoulder, her touch gentle in an obvious attempt to calm me.  


“You sustained quite serious injuries, Aloy.”  


“H-how… how do you…?”  


“The Captain, Erend, brought you in here. He said he knows you.”  


I breathed in deeply through my nose, closing my eyes for a moment before slowly opening them, once again.  


“You…” I paused to clear my throat, feeling my voice return to normal slowly as I tried to speak. “You sent that other woman for him?”  


The woman beside me nodded.  


“He specifically asked to be summoned once you awoke. I don’t think many of us were expecting it to be… quite this long, though.”  


A grimace pulled at my lips as I shifted my position on the bedding, still feeling the lingering soreness from evidently having laid still for multiple days.  


“It’s a miracle that you didn’t seem to sustain any more serious internal injuries other than some broken ribs.”  


I turned my head to try to look down myself and saw that I was covered by a blanket that came up to just below my collar bones, hiding the injuries from sight.  


“You’ve been set and bandaged. The rest and stillness has probably helped the healing process.”  


“Three days…”  


I let out a heavy sigh, instantly wincing at the jolt of pain from the motion. At that moment, however, I heard the sound of loud voices echoing from the hallway outside, followed soon after by rapid, heavy footsteps. One of the people was undoubtedly a man by the pitch and timbre, and I had a good feeling who it was, even without making out any specific words.  


“…to make sure she’s in top shape, got it?”  


The woman’s voice muttered something before I vaguely made out motion past the foot of the bed. A moment later, Erend appeared on the opposite side from the woman who had been tending to me, a concerned expression on his face.  


“Aloy, you’re awake?”  


I nodded slowly and he let out a sigh of relief.  


“You’re awake. S-she’s awake!”  


He gestured to me as he glanced over at the woman, but quickly retracted his arm, rubbing at the back of his neck.  


“I, uh, asked Sencha to fetch Janna.”  


The woman simply nodded before glancing down at me for a moment, her expression unreadable.  


“I’ll get more water and return in a minute.”  


With that, she grabbed the larger container covered in ornate, colorful designs and nodded toward Erend before slipping out of the room and retreating down the hallway. The room fell silent for several long moments before Erend sighed, letting his hand fall to his side and looking down at me, once again.  


“You were in bad shape when you showed up,” he said, his tone much gentler. “What happened?”  


“Something… scared the Strider and… well, there’s a reason you don’t want to end up under the hooves of one.”  


He winced at the very idea, his eyes flicking down toward my side before returning to my face.  


“What was it that scared the machine so badly?”  


I swallowed the lump that had suddenly appeared in my throat before taking a slow, deep breath.  


“A, uh… a Deathbringer.”  


Confusion creased his face at the name.  


“A Deathbringer?”  


“ _I suppose he’s had no reason to see one, before._ ”  


“An… an ancient machine, like the Corruptors, but… much bigger… more powerful.”  


Concern creased his face as he wrung his hands before him.  


“Where did you encounter such a thing?”  


A short, dry laughed escaped me before I groaned, squirming slightly against the pain that shot through my torso.  


“Middle of nowhere,” I finally managed, my voice sounding strained.  


“Take it easy, take it easy,” he said insistently, looking as if he wanted to place his hand on my shoulder but thinking better of it at the last second and simply resting it on the side of the bed next to me. “You rode all the way here after the Strider nearly crushed you?”  


“Well, it was either that or die in the desert…”  


A grimace came over his features as I felt a pang of guilt at having been so blunt.  


“Then I guess it was a good thing you made it.”  


Silence fell over us for several long moments before the sound of voices echoing about the hallway outside drifted through the open doorway. Erend glanced toward the door before clearing his throat and looking back down at me.  


“The healer’s going to check you out—uh—make sure you’re… good to go.”  


“ _Hard to imagine that I’m remotely close, considering how much even the slightest movement hurts…_ ”  


A moment later, another woman appeared beside me; she was older than the first, with noticeable streaks of grey in her hair and a nasty scar on the side of her neck. Her grey-blue eyes showed an immediate concern as she took in my appearance.  


“How are you feeling, Aloy?”  


“Like I was trampled by a Strider.”  


The woman let out a short laugh as a smirk tugged at her lips.  


“Well, you certainly looked it when Erend dragged you in here. How’s the pain?”  


I grimaced slightly as a slight jolt of pain seemed to shoot up my side just at the very mention of it.  


“I’ll take that as ‘still persistent,’” the woman commented, frowning slightly. “Broken bones don’t heal entirely in three days, unfortunately.”  


“How… how did I sleep that long?”  


The woman, presumably the main healer Erend had mentioned, looked somewhat surprised by the question but blinked rapidly before giving the explanation.  


“We sedated you, to help with the worst of the pain.”  


My heart began to pound in my ears as I felt my hands curling into fists beneath the blanket.  


“You… what?”  


“Setting broken bones takes time, and if the my impression of you based on the story Erend told is true, then I couldn’t have you trying to simply jump up and go right back to getting kicked by machines the morning after you arrived.”  


I began to shake my head as I tried to throw aside the blanket when the healer grabbed it and held it back to my chest.  


“You… may not want to do that.”  


I looked at her curiously for a moment before she pulled it down slightly, revealing more bare skin and the meaning of her implication. Erend shifted uncomfortably out of the corner of my eye as I swallowed, remaining still as the woman pulled the blanket back up to my collar bone and let out a heavy sigh.  


“I think that just about proves me right.”  


I wanted to argue back, but no words came, so I simply settled for letting out a low, grumbling sound, not meeting her eyes.  


“Well, I do need to check the bandages and the injury, however, so Captain, if you can give us a moment?”  


Erend quickly muttered something in agreement, nodding as he hurried out of the room, pulling the door closed behind him. Once he had left, the healer let out a heavy sigh, turning her attention back to me. She gently pulled the blanket down to my waist, revealing my bare torso and my injuries. I craned my neck to try to see them but she placed a hand on my shoulder, pushing me back down gently.  


“A moment, please.”  


I ground my teeth but nodded, allowing her to move around the other side of the bed.  


“I apologize for any pain this will cause.”  


A moment later, I felt her fingers press against my side and I clenched my jaw against the groan that attempted to escape my lips. A long, excruciating minute later, and she seemed to have removed whatever bandaging she had put in place, as she stopped prodding my side and the pain finally began to fade away, although I could still feel it throbbing from the central location where I assumed the Strider’s hoof had squarely landed.  


“Bruising is still present, but the area has shrunk,” the healer commented. “That’s a good sign.”  


I simply grunted acknowledgement as I kept my jaw clenched to hold in the sounds my vocal cords kept threatening to release. The healer moved away from the bed for a moment and I took in a deep breath through my nose, letting it out slowly until she reappeared with a small, wooden bowl in hand.  


“This is just some salvebrush cream,” she explained, gesturing to the bowl. “Helps keep swelling down and prevents infection.”  


“I… I know,” I managed, squirming slightly at the idea of her poking my injury, again.  


“Well, then as you may know, it also reduces pain when applied directly to the skin, so hopefully this will help some.”  


Each touch of her fingers to the injured portion of my abdomen felt like someone was stabbing me with a red-hot arrowhead, but I tried my best to keep my squirming and vocalizations to a minimum. After what felt like an hour, the healer finally pulled her hand away, sighing.  


“There. The numbing effects should set in, soon.”  


“ _I certainly hope so._ ”  


The healer disappeared from sight, once again as I took several quick breaths before craning my neck forward, using my right arm to help lift my shoulders from the bed in an attempt to see the injury. The pain was less than before, but still enough to prompt my jaw to clench so tightly that I worried I might crack a tooth. Despite all of this however, it was nothing compared to the chills that ran down my spine as I finally saw the left side of my stomach.  


The skin was a dark purple, stretching halfway to my navel in one direction while wrapping around my side and presumably continuing onto my back on the other. The outer edges of the bruise faded to a dark red color before the normal, somewhat pale tone of my uninjured skin. Other than the intense bruising, however, I couldn’t make out any other signs of an injury.  


“What did I tell you before?”  


I glanced up toward the healer as she approached the bed, once again, shaking her head.  


“Lie down, girl.”  


With a sigh, I fell back onto the bed, the pain lessening as I remained still for several moments.  


“Are you satisfied?”  


I rolled my head to one side to see her regarding me with a stern gaze and I almost found myself laughing, but I quickly repressed it.  


“Other than the bruising, it doesn’t really look like anything.”  


“Well, that’s because the bone didn’t puncture the skin, thankfully. I’ve seen much worse from people who’ve ended up on the receiving end of a blow from Striders… or worse.”  


Images of destroyed cabins, flames stretching into the night sky as bodies littered the ground nearby flashed before me and I quickly closed my eyes against them, but it did nothing to help; if anything, they only seemed to flash by even faster.  


“Your Nora goddess must have been watching over you to have sustained such a mild injury.”  


I was unable to hold back the short, dry laugh that escaped me, but I felt my cheeks begin to heat up as I opened my eyes and glanced over at the healer to find her regarding me with an unreadable expression.  


“Yeah, something like that,” I finally said, clearing my throat.  


“Well, I can see you won’t stand to remain confined to this bed for much longer, so I’m going to apply some tighter bandages in an attempt to hold you together, even if you insist on getting up and walking about.”  


The memory of dragging myself across the mesa to the Strider after the encounter with the Deathbringer came rushing back, along with a building feeling of pain in my side that only faded as I took a slow, controlled breath, focusing on a particular point on the ceiling.  


“ _Get up. Get walking. That’s the goal. You can’t waste more time here._ ”  


“Please try to stay still while I apply them, though.”  


I nodded curtly as the healer produced a roll of white cloth, unwinding a generous portion before cutting it with a small knife. She carefully laid it across my stomach, starting at a level even with the top of the bruising. As she reached my left side, she gently placed a hand beneath me and indicated for me to arch my back. I obliged, wincing as she quickly slid the bandage under me and brought it over my right side. She continued this process, overlapping each row halfway across the previous, until she had created a rather dense wrapping. Each end of the bandage was secured in place by threading it under the row beneath the top layer and tying a small knot.  


I grimaced as she pulled at the lower portion of the bandaging, drawing the entire binding in tightly against my skin before securing it in place. It almost felt like I wouldn’t be able to breathe with how she had left it, but I forced myself to take slow, controlled breaths until I felt how it was able to expand just enough to not feel that constrictive.  


“ _It’s not over your chest, anyway. Just don’t go eating any huge feasts, maybe._ ”  


A small smirk tugged at my lips as the healer sighed, clapping her hands together before her.  


“That should hold your insides in place well enough, I’d say. Now, let’s get you up, as I’m guessing you’re dying to do.”  


She gently placed her hands behind my upper back, supporting me as I slowly pulled myself into a seated position, turning so that my legs hung from the side of the bed. Thankfully, they had given me a pair of bottoms at some point, although they were unlike anything I could remember wearing before. They seemed to be made of a soft silk, although they were thick enough to not allow anyone to see through them. I couldn’t lie, they were rather comfortable.  


“I will get you a tunic so that you can walk about in public.”  


I nodded, muttering my thanks as the healer slipped around the bed and disappeared somewhere behind me. My hand gingerly ran over the bandages covering my side, feeling the slight sting from the bruising below, although it was nowhere near as intense as it had been the entire time between when I had woken up and now. It seemed the salvebrush and the dressing were doing the trick.  


Just then, the healer appeared before me, once again, offering a flowing, incredibly brightly colored piece of clothing that looked to be made of a similar material as the bottoms. It was a strikingly light blue color, almost the same as one of the dyed necklaces I had kept ever since Rost had showed me how to make them. I accepted it from her and quickly slipped it over my head before realizing that it appeared to require some kind of fastening to hold it in place and prevent it from simply hanging around me like a tent.  


“Here, let me show you…”  


The woman quickly helped by gathering the bottom of the silky top and pulling it to one side, creating a neckline that stretched several inches down my chest, but was by no means revealing; still, the feeling of air blowing across my skin so easily sent a shiver down my spine. The fabric at the bottom seemed to be longer on the left, allowing her to wrap it around me like a belt before wrapping it under where the belt-like section began, tying it off with a knot that let it lay flat against my stomach. It was far more intricate of clothing than I had ever considered wearing, but it wasn’t necessarily uncomfortable.  


“You know, I think blue and red really are your colors.”  


The healer grinned at me, a mischievous spark in her eye, before clapping her hands twice and gesturing for me to stand up.  


“All right, up, up.”  


I took a deep breath before sliding to the edge of the bed and placing my feet on the floor. At first, the pain from my side wasn’t the only problem: my knees and leg muscles didn’t seem to remember how to support my weight and I fell back onto the bed within mere moments. The healer prevented me from falling flat on my back across the bedding, but I still felt my cheeks heating up with the embarrassment of not being able to even stand on my own.  


“Take your time. Three days is a long time to remain lying in bed.”  


“ _No shit._ ”  


I shook my head at the strange saying, not even trying to think about where it came from as I instead refocused on the task at hand. After two more failed attempts, I was able to stand shakily on my own, the healer’s hand gently placed against my back, but not supporting my weight.  


“Take a few steps, slowly. Get your muscles re-acquainted with moving.”  


The few minutes that I spent slowly building up my ability to walk confidently felt like hours as I ground my teeth repeatedly. I had never felt this weak before, even after narrowly escaping death at the Proving, and it only served to stoke the fire building in my chest.  


“ _Who are you mad at, yourself?_ ”  


I pushed aside the intrusive thoughts as I continued to pace across the room, each step feeling more confident than the last. Finally, I came to a stop, heaving a heavy sigh and glancing over at the healer.  


“Seems you got your legs back.”  


“Finally,” I muttered, rubbing my palms against the sides of them.  


“Don’t be angry at your own body,” she chastised, “it will do you know good. Everyone heals in their own time.”  


“ _Too bad that’s something I don’t have._ ”  


“If you’re feeling capable, I’m sure Erend would like to have a word with you. You can meet him in the hallway outside.”  


The amused smirk on the woman’s face only prompted me to roll my eyes, yet I still turned toward the door, mentally preparing myself to step outside.  


“ _Only the first time you’ve left this room in three days, no big deal._ ”  


Before I actually crossed to the door, however, a thought occurred to me and I glanced around the room, my right hand instinctually reaching toward my ear. My fingers only found empty air where my Focus usually sat and I began to feel a sense of panic setting in, my heart rate rising considerably.  


“Is everything okay?”  


I turned toward the healer, once again as I tried to calm my breathing enough to speak normally.  


“Where are my things? My, uh—”  


“Your weapons and equipment were given to Erend after you were taken here. Your clothing was not in the best condition, so they were taken to be cleaned and repaired. I would imagine they were also taken to wherever the Captain has been storing everything else.”  


I nodded in response, lowering my arm slowly, the empty space next to my ear suddenly much more apparent than it had been this entire time. I needed to find out where he had taken my things. Soon.  


“The metal trinket you seemed to be searching for,” the healer continued, tapping the side of her head in the same position as where I had felt for the Focus on mine a moment ago, “I thought it was just a piece of strange jewelry at first. It seemed to be… something more… when we removed it.”  


I swallowed the hard lump in my throat before even attempting to speak.  


“It—uh—yeah, kind of.”  


She stared back at me with an unreadable expression for several moments before sighing and clapping her hands before her.  


“Well, I should clean up in here. I’m sure Erend is eagerly awaiting you outside.”  


Something about her last statement sent a shiver down my spine, but I quickly pushed past it and began to move toward the door. As I gripped the handle, I paused, taking a deep breath in through my nose. Finally, I pulled it open and stepped outside, immediately taking in the open archways that served like a series of windows where the opposite wall of a hallway would normally be. The view through them seemed to be a courtyard one floor below, complete with exotic-looking, brightly-colored plants and a small pond with a statue of a figure I didn’t recognize standing in the center of it.  


“Well, look at that, on her feet already.”  


I glanced over at the sound of Erend’s voice to find him leaning against the wall several feet to my right, his arms folded over his chest. His eyes slid down from my face before quickly flicking back to meet my gaze as I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up straight.  


“I honestly can’t say I expected to see you up and about right now.”  


“I’m full of surprises.”  


He laughed loudly as I smirked, glancing up and down the long hallway.  


“Where is this place?”  


“This is the healing wing of the Sun Palace,” Erend explained, stepping up to the railing at the bottom of the nearest open archway and leaning against it. “It’s right near the Vanguard’s barracks.”  


“Convenient.”  


I shot him a coy smirk as he gave me an admonishing look.  


“Do I sense some mockery?”  


“I’m sure no one ever gets hurt swinging around giant hammers all day.”  


“That is a finely-crafted Oseram weapon, I’ll have you know.”  


I rolled my eyes as I stepped up to the railing, as well, resting my hands on the warm surface of the stone. A warm breeze blew through the courtyard, lifting strands of my hair from my shoulders as I marveled how the silk clothing seemed to allow the heat to pass right through without absorbing it and trapping it against my skin like my typical furs and leather did. I was starting to think maybe I could get used to it.  


“ _Wouldn’t do you much good in a fight, though._ ”  


“So, did Janna give you a pass?”  


I looked over at him in confusion for a moment or two before realizing that Janna must be the healer.  


“She bandaged me, but I gave myself a pass, in the end.”  


“That stubbornness is simultaneously impressive and aggravating.”  


We both turned to look back toward the door to find the healer appearing from within the room, a basket full of what appeared to be old bandages and other supplies held under one arm.  


“Something told me I wasn’t going to stop you from leaving that room,” she continued, leaving the door slightly open before approaching us and staring pointedly at me. “I would not recommend travelling for the time being, and I would ask that you come back to check in with me in three days. Do you think that will be possible?”  


“Three days? I should…”  


“I’ll hold her to it.”  


My head whipped around toward Erend as my jaw clenched, my glare intense enough that I swore I could feel the heat on my own face. Janna shifted slightly as I heard her chuckle under her breath.  


“A noble endeavor, Captain,” she quipped before I felt a gently touch on my right elbow and I turned to face her. “I can only ask, but I will say that I believe you will be the stronger for it.”  


My teeth ground together for several moments before I begrudgingly nodded and Janna smiled softly.  


“Do enjoy your time in Meridian, in the meantime.”  


With that, she walked away, leaving us in a tense silence for several long moments before I cleared my throat, looking over at Erend, finally.  


“So, you’re gonna hold me to not leaving Meridian?”  


His face began to grow red as he rubbed at the back of his neck.  


“I-I mean…”  


With a heavy sigh, I turned to face out into the courtyard, once again, moving to lean on the railing but stopping as pain shot through my side and I settled on standing up straight but leaning my hip into it.  


“I just don’t want to see you injure yourself further,” he quickly tried to explain. “I’ve seen plenty of soldiers take hard knocks like that and head right back into the thick of it the next day only to have some serious complications later on.”  


I wanted to say something in response, but no words came quickly, so I settled on letting out a huffing sound and picking at the surface of the railing with my nails. Small flecks of what seemed to be sand came loose under my restless hands, the small grains rubbing between my fingertips for a moment before I let them fall over the edge into the courtyard below.  


“Where did you take my things?”  


Erend seemed surprised by my question, not answering for a moment or two before quickly rushing to recover and stammering slightly.  


“You, uh, you mean, like, your weapons?”  


“Well, yeah. All of my possessions. None of them were in that room.”  


I gestured to the door behind us, looking over at him, once again, as I did.  


“Oh, uh… they’re in Olin’s old apartment.”  


Confusion settled over me as I let my arm fall to my side, once again.  


“What? Why?”  


“Avad has given permission for you to take up residence there for the time being as… well, he hasn’t returned, and even if he did…”  


The implication hung heavy in the hair as he trailed off, leaving us in silence other than the sound of the wind through the plants and trees in the courtyard below. Finally, Erend cleared his throat, shifting the position of his arms over his chest.  


“There’s some, uh, other people who want to speak to you while you’re here.”  


I raised my eyebrows slightly as I glanced over at him, once again.  


“Who?”  


“Well…”  


“Sun King Avad, for one.”  


I jumped in surprise, whirling to face the sound of the voice behind me, eyes scanning the hallway for the source of the new arrival that had somehow gone unnoticed until that very moment. Finally, my gaze settled on the familiar image of a man with long, grey hair tied behind his head and a strange, beak-like metal headpiece perched atop it.  


“Sorry to startle you, Aloy.”  


The man stepped closer, his hands remaining clasped behind his back as I noted the slight smirk that seemed to be set in his features. Part of me wondered if that was just his typical expression.  


“Who are you, a-and why?” I finally managed, brushing some of the braids of hair that had fallen in my face out of the way with slightly trembling fingers that I instantly cursed internally.  


“As for who I am, I am known as Blameless Marad. As for why Sun King Avad wishes to meet with you, well, because you are needed for an important consultation.”  


The man spoke in an even, somewhat quiet voice that set me on edge and triggered a great sense of unease that sent a shiver running down my spine.  


“What do you mean by that?”  


“You are a very important girl, Aloy,” he continued. “Not many others can make such an entrance as riding to the gate of Meridian on the back of a Strider, nor solve a mystery that no one else even realized was one.”  


“What are you talking about?”  


My experience so far with this Marad left me feeling a half-step behind him, but it didn’t stop me from growing increasingly frustrated with his intentionally vague answers.  


“Ersa.”  


This time it was Erend who answered, though, prompting me to turn partially toward him, once again.  


“Like you said, the body brought back to Meridian… it isn’t hers.”  


Confusion came over me for a moment before the image of a hulking, rusted ruin across a field of tall grass flashed before my eyes, along with images of bodies clad in Oseram armor lying about the sandy ground amidst the ancient buildings.  


“We went to investigate…”  


“So… did you find the…real her?”  


Erend shifted between his feet slightly before shaking his head, staring down at the floor between us.  


“We were waiting for you to return. Your second sight helped discover that we had been tricked, and…”  


My jaw clenched as Erend scuffed his boot across the floor before sighing.  


“Dammit, Aloy, it’s been a while since anyone has seen you.”  


Instead of sympathy or guilt after his statement, I found a fire building in my chest, my hands clenching into fists at my sides.  


“I’ve had my own problems to deal with, too.”  


The words tumbled out of my mouth before I could stop them, but they didn’t seem to stop there.  


“Have you truly had no other leads to what happened, and just kept waiting for me to show up here, one day?”  


Erend looked as if he were about to say something else, but quickly closed his mouth, once again, unable to meet my eyes. After several long moments of tense, awkward silence, Marad cleared his throat.  


“Regardless, Aloy, the Sun King requests an audience with you.”  


“Now?”  


“If you are feeling able.”  


I glanced toward Erend to find him watching me warily and I swallowed the lump in my throat.  


“As able as ever.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More characters soon, woot woot.
> 
> Don't worry, this isn't going to be a 10-chapter excursion to Meridian where Aloy does nothing but talk to people. The weirdness and action will resume next week.


	11. Royal Audience

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I guess it's almost the 2nd anniversary since HZD actually came out. That's kinda nuts. I didn't end up playing it for the first time until June of 2017 when I finally decided I could spend my "grown up money" to get one game for myself, and I ended up only having to spend $12 for it because of an old gift card I found.
> 
> In light of that, I might have to actually do something special. Or just use it as an excuse, at least. I'm not sure what it might be, if I did, so I guess be on the lookout.
> 
> Anyway, back to the actual story at hand. Once again, I promise more than just talking will happen soon, but at least now things are going to get a little screwy to throw a wrench in the works for our protagonist, here.

Marad turned and gestured toward the hallway behind him before beginning to walk away, apparently assuming that I would follow behind. I hesitated for a moment before following after the soft-spoken advisor. I was aware of an extra pair of footsteps behind me and assumed that Erend was following, but keeping his distance. Marad led the way through the twisting, winding hallways and up multiple sets of stairs until I had firmly become lost; there was no way I would easily be able to find my back by this point, especially not without my Focus. A clammy feeling spread across my palms at the thought of being so exposed without any of my weapons or tools, but I quickly tried to brush it aside as Marad opened the door at the top of the current staircase, revealing brilliant sunlight beyond.  


As I stepped through the doorway, I squinted against the light, but quickly realized that we must have arrived at the area of the palace that housed the actual throne. Couches with lavish pillows sat around short tables, each one sporting a strange, metal contraption that seemed to house multiple candles in a shape that I could vaguely describe as mimicking that of a tree. Drapes made of nearly-transparent silk fabric hung from metal bars overhead, providing the means to enclose some of the seating areas and make them slightly more private, perhaps. Because of this, I almost missed the figure seated in one of these sections at the far end from us. There was only one person it could be, in this section of the palace.  


“Aloy of the Nora—she who sees the unseen. Welcome.”  


The man was younger than I expected, seemingly barely older than Erend with no signs of gray in his hair or well-trimmed beard. His face still retained an impression of youthfulness, while his voice carried a tone that was much more warm and inviting than booming and commanding, as I had imagined a king’s to be. He sported an ornate headpiece and cloak that matched in design and colors, combining to create a whirlwind of colors that seemed to shine against his tanned complexion.  


“It would seem you have done me a great service.”  


Marad stepped aside as we reached the section of couches where the king stood, gesturing for me to step closer. With an apprehensive glance at the strange man who had seemingly appeared from thin air back near the healer’s room and spoke almost as softly as he walked, I stepped past him and into the seating area.  


“Aloy, Sun King Avad,” he said as soon as I had stepped past him.  


I nodded my head slightly, unsure of what was customary when greeting someone of authority with the Carja, suddenly feeling incredibly exposed in the unfamiliar clothing and without any of my typical means of protecting myself.  


“ _Worse comes to worse, you can just improvise._ ”  


Another strange saying…  


“Has Erend already told you what he has discovered about Ersa?”  


I nodded, glancing back to see him hanging back near Marad, his jaw set as he stared vacantly past everyone else.  


“Then as you may have deduced: if the body is not Ersa’s, then we must assume she is still alive, and I will _not_ abandon her.”  


Avad’s dark eyes glanced over my shoulder for a moment before returning to meet mine.  


“We only know she was taken, not who took her,” I said quickly, subconsciously rubbing at my side as a small flare of discomfort flared from it.  


“My apologies, I forgot your injuries for a moment,” Avad interrupted, gesturing to the couch behind me. “Please, take a seat.”  


I opened my mouth to protest, but Avad was already taking one, himself, on the couch opposite, and the feeling of remaining standing while he sat felt—somewhat disrespectful. Only a small flare of pain blossomed from my side as I gingerly took a seat at the edge of the plush cushion, feeling how easily my weight sank into it.  


“I may be able to help with the question of ‘who,’” Marad suddenly interjected, stepping into the seating areas, as well, although he remained standing. “Ersa has an enemy among the Oseram, a warlord named Dervahl.”  


“Impossible,” Erend scoffed, appearing beside Marad with an indignant expression on his face. “Every clan in the claim has been hunting him since the Liberation. He has to be dead by now.”  


“No other Oseram had the motive and ingenuity to lure Ersa into this trap,” the soft-spoken man countered, shooting a glance at Erend beside him. “I expect to find him lurking somewhere near the border.”  


Erend rolled his eyes, a motion which did not go unnoticed by Marad, but he continued, regardless.  


“I’ve already sent an agent to investigate. He’ll be waiting for word from us in the market in Pitchcliff.”  


“I can’t move troops to the border without provoking the Oseram,” Avad replied, shaking his head slowly as he drummed his fingers on one knee, “but I could send a few Vanguardsmen… and perhaps an exceptionally gifted Nora, as well?”  


The king’s gaze fell on me, and I felt myself instinctually shying away from it until I forced myself to remain calm, relaxing my shoulders and feeling the tension and ache from my abdomen fading away. With a slow breath in through my nose, I nodded in response and Avad gave a short one of his own in response before looking to the two other men nearby.  


“Erend, Marad, let me discuss it with her privately.”  


Marad bowed his head and turned to leave almost immediately, while Erend lingered for a moment, glancing between Avad and me, before following suit. Once they had gone a reasonable distance away, the Sun King slid to the edge of his seat, leaning forward and bracing his elbows on his knees.  


“I hate to impose further after all you’ve done, but this is a matter of great importance to me.”  


“It’s… understandable,” I replied, shrugging. “It sounds like Ersa means a lot to you.”  


“Without her Oseram Vanguard, I would not have been able to liberate Meridian and end my father’s brutal reign. Since then, it has been difficult to maintain peace between our tribes, but that’s why I’m asking you to go down there and help square up with the locals.”  


Confusion rolled over me at the sudden change in Avad’s tone mid-thought, but as I focused on him, once again, my heart rate leapt. The man sitting on the couch across from me no longer appeared to be the Sun King, but an all-too familiar man dressed in a white shirt and grey slacks, one leg crossed over the opposite knee as he reclined on the couch, his arms spread along the back of it to either side of him.  


“You’ve always had a way with words when it comes to convincing people that technology isn’t the devil,” the image of Ted Faro said, smirking.  


I remained silent, my breathing quickening to match my heart rate. My hands clenched into fists in my lap, my teeth grinding together as I clenched my jaw.  


This wasn’t happening right now. It couldn’t be.  


“C’mon… whadaya say, Lis?”  


My eyes widened, but I suddenly heard my voice echoing in my ears, despite no sensation of speaking actually coming from my throat.  


“You mean they just never seem to trust you.”  


“Now, now, Lis, that’s a cheap shot. After all, I did convince you to work for me, so what does that say?”  


“That I was young and too naïve to think ahead?”  


“You saw an opportunity—”  


The image of Ted jabbed one finger at me pointedly, smirking as he did.  


“—and you couldn’t say no. I made an offer you couldn’t refuse.”  


“ _This can’t be happening right now._ ”  


The image sighed, rolling his eyes as he suddenly sat forward, clasping his hands between his knees.  


“Fine, Lis, have it your way.”  


He cleared his throat before adopting a much more serious expression.  


“You seem distracted, Aloy.”  


My heart nearly stopped at the sound of my name spoken in Ted’s voice. There was no way—no way—no—  


“Is it your injuries? I understand that sedation can sometimes take a while to truly wear off.”  


Suddenly, with the next blink, the image of Ted was replaced with that of Avad, a look of concern on his face. I ran my tongue over my lips quickly, feeling how dry they were as I struggled to force my voice to function.  


“I—uh—yeah, something like that.”  


Avad regarded me for a moment with the same expression before he cleared his throat softly, shifting his position.  


“We can continue this conversation once you have had a chance to heal some more and recover closer to your normal self.”  


“I’m—I’m fine for now. The, uh, the conversation helps me force myself to focus.”  


The Sun King looked like he wanted to say something else, but finally nodded, rubbing his hands together for a moment.  


“Who is the Dervahl that Marad mentioned, exactly?”  


“To understand Dervahl, you must first understand my father.”  


The next blink, the image of Avad was replaced with Ted Faro, once again, his posture exactly the same, but with an expression that I could only think to describe as “mocking.”  


“He truly thought of himself as a Sun God. What a wack-job.”  


I tried to contain my outward reaction as the image of Ted shook his head, looking down at the ground before him for a moment before looking back up at me.  


“He believed that blood sacrifice would solve—well—everything. So, he raided the other tribes for victims, especially the Oseram. Dervahl fought back. He crafted powerful weapons and rallied his people. He was a powerful inventor, like someone you may know…”  


The image of Ted raised one eyebrow before laughing.  


“Anyway, so the crazy Sun King responded with the ultimate cruelty.”  


I felt like I was going to suffer another dizzying spell while listening to words that were mostly Avad’s told in the casual, demeaning tone of Ted Faro. My jaw was clenched so tightly that I began to feel the ache in my teeth. It felt like one of them was about to pop loose at any moment, so I took a deep breath in through my nose, trying to convince myself to relax the tension throughout my body.  


“He captured Dervahl’s wife and daughter and sacrificed them in the Sun Ring. Barbaric, right?”  


I nodded slowly, trying to ignore the pain that had begun to flare up in my side from clenching my muscles so tightly.  


“That’s… devastating,” I finally managed, my voice sounding rather strained.  


“So, you see,” the voice of Avad said, the image of Ted disappearing a moment later, as well, “he holds quite a grudge.”  


“Why would he kidnap Ersa, though?”  


Avad sighed, rubbing his temple with his fingertips before looking up at me, once again.  


“He felt she betrayed him.”  


“Betrayed?”  


“She fought by his side until she realized he planned to raze Meridian and butcher its people.”  


“ _Good to know she has a moral code, at least…_ ”  


“Then she came to me… Together, we stopped him, and liberated the city from my father.”  


With another sigh, Avad straightened up, only to be replaced by Ted Faro leaning back on the couch, his arms spread to either side of him, once again.  


“Dervahl has spent every moment since trying to get revenge, mostly on the other Oseram who fought with us.”  


The voice was still Avad’s, but the smug look on the face it came from made me wish I had my spear with me.  


“ _Or a gun._ ”  


Wait… what?  


“He made so many powerful enemies, I thought we had seen the last of him. Guess what? Ol’ Avad was wrong.”  


The sudden voice change mid-sentence sent a shiver down my spine, seemingly much to the amusement of the image of Ted.  


“Getting to you, yet, Lis?”  


I said nothing, intertwining my fingers tightly in my lap and twisting them against each other as I attempted to keep my outward reaction under control.  


“Oh, sorry, Aloy, right? Of course. How rude.”  


“ _How could he know?_ ”  


The image of Ted tapped the side of his head, the same smug grin unwavering.  


Oh, right.  


“Now, it has been a while since I last heard of the flame-haired huntress who can tame wild machines passing through Meridian, but Marad’s advising has told me that you have been quite busy with the ruins of the Old Ones.”  


My palms grew slick with cold sweat as the hair on the back of my neck rose. The idea that somehow someone else had been keeping track of me didn’t sit well, but then again, it shouldn’t have been all that surprising. The leader of the Carja was a powerful man with many connections, so it stood to reason that he would know what was going on in and around his kingdom. The fact that it was Ted Faro telling me this fact just felt too uncanny.  


“ _I stood in the ruins of your mistakes._ ”  


“Oh?” I finally replied, trying to wipe the clammy feeling from my palms against the leg of the silk clothing I had been given.  


“I would hope that it has not been for similar reasons as those who seek to raise the ancient machines that have been spotted across the land.”  


The subtle threat didn’t go unnoticed, however it seemed to take on a whole new meaning in the voice of the man who created said machines, in the first place.  


“You could say for the opposite reason.”  


“You seek to destroy them?”  


“I’ve been almost killed by them multiple times, so that seems to leave me with no choice.”  


The image of Ted nodded slowly, his grin fading to something like annoyance before he suddenly sat forward, leaning into the empty space between his couch and me.  


“You really think you can stop the very things that destroyed the entire planet, before? You, one teenage girl, and her fucking bow and arrows?”  


I remained silent, staring back at the image for several long moments, breathing heavily but evenly through my nose. Finally, the image shook his head, his jaw clearly working beneath his skin.  


“Well, good luck, kid. Your _momma_ there couldn’t even do it. Remember: her idea was that everything had to die.”  


With that, the image of Avad appeared in his place, once again, a concerned expression on his face.  


“Aloy, are you sure everything is all right?”  


“Fine,” I said, perhaps a little too quickly by the way Avad recoiled at my outburst. “I-I’m fine.”  


He nodded slowly, but looked unconvinced.  


“Well, then I am glad I can trust that we are on the same side. However, my curiosity begs that I ask: why then have you taken such interest in these ruins?”  


With a slow, shaky breath, I placed my palms flat on top of my thighs, staring down at the table between us for a moment before lifting my eyes to meet his gaze.  


“It’s a long story. Perhaps one for another time, though.”  


Avad looked disappointed for a moment but quickly recovered, nodding sagely.  


“I look forward to it, then.”  


Silence fell over us for several long moments before the Sun King clapped his hands together, looking over at me with an expression that was much more relaxed than he had appeared during our entire conversation so far.  


“Well, I have some courtiers I must attend to, unfortunately, and I do not want to hold you here to bore you with hearing the requests of those who feel they have grievances to express to their king. I understand you have visited before, however there is truly much to experience within Meridian and I hope that you will consider experiencing at least some of it during your recovery.”  


“Are you trying to sell me a vacation in your city?”  


He regarded me with a strange expression as I found myself questioning exactly what I had just asked of him, and how casually it had slipped into my conversation with the leader of one of the largest tribes in the area around the Nora homeland.  


“I… would suppose on some level, I am,” he replied, laughing softly as he did. “If you need to speak to me about anything, please do not hesitate to return. When you are feeling capable of pursing the matter with Ersa, we will draft a final plan. In the meantime, Erend or Marad will be able to show you to your quarters for your stay in the city. I understand that your equipment and clothing have already been stored there.”  


“Olin’s apartment, I know. Erend told me.”  


“Well, then perhaps he can show you the way.”  


Avad offered a small smile before rising to his feet, prompting me to do the same, albeit much more stiffly and with more groaning involved. He tried to hide the sympathetic look that had come across his face, but I had seen it well enough to fuel the fire burning in my chest.  


“ _I’m not helpless._ ”  


“Thank you for your time, Aloy, and I wish you a quick recovery,” he remarked, bowing his head slightly.  


I returned the gesture before turning and stepping out of the curtained-off area and glancing in each direction for signs of the other two men who I had arrived with earlier. Marad stood talking to a man dressed in the clothing of a commoner from the fields below the mesa, although something told me this man was anything but this. They were still engaged in a heated exchange at the moment, so I turned to the left to find Erend standing at one of the railings overlooking the drop-off to the farmlands below. With a deep breath in through my nose, I turned and made my way toward him.  


His irritation was apparent in his stance, even without seeing his face. For a moment, I debated not even approaching him, but at the sound of my approaching footsteps, he glanced over his shoulder.  


“Avad finally let you go?”  


He remained facing the open scenery before him, but turned his head to watch me approach until I stood beside him, resting my hands on the railing.  


“He felt bad for bothering an injured girl for so long.”  


Erend let out a short, emphatic laugh and I found a slight smirk tugging at the corner of my lips, as well.  


“I suppose you can use it to your advantage, after all.”  


Silence fell over us for several long moments as we stared out at the scenery stretching away from the mesa all the way to the horizon, hundreds of miles away. The ground immediately around the mesa was organized into relatively neat squares of farmland, some yellow, some green, and some mostly brown. It was impossible to tell exactly what was being grown in each from here, but I assumed that I could find out simply by visiting one of the markets in the city, itself.  


Beyond the farmland, the land faded into the dense trees and jungle of the Jewel, the mere thought of the wet, humid air and oppressive heat bringing a slight grimace to my face. Nowhere else in my life had made me feel as if I were physically swimming in a lake while standing on—mostly—dry land. At the far side of the dense foliage, I caught sight of a row of rock cliffs, the brown wall broken up by the occasional foaming white of several large waterfalls. My hand began to instinctually reach toward my right ear when I remembered that my Focus was stored with the rest of my possessions and I sighed, letting my arm fall to my side, once again.  


Something told me that I was looking in the right direction for the location Sylens had sent me, but I had no way of truly knowing without my device.  


“ _Never realized how much you can’t live without it, huh?_ ”  


With a heavy sigh, I tapped my hands on the stone railing and glanced over at Erend.  


“Would you be able to show me to my belongings?”  


“At Olin’s old apartment? Sure. Ready to go now?”  


I nodded and Erend cast a glance toward Marad, who was still talking to the man in commoner’s clothing before clearing his throat and nodding toward a set of stairs nearby.  


“Come on, I’ll show you.”  


The stairs sent spikes of pain shooting through my side, forcing me to clench my jaw tightly in an attempt to hide it. Luckily, Erend didn’t seem to notice, as he led the way, and I pressed at the bandaged area gently once I reached the top, as if it would somehow help the feeling to pass. At the top of the stairs, Erend led the way through an enormous archway before taking a left and slipping past several armored Carja guards, each one stomping the butt of his spear on the ground and straightening up a little more at the sight of the Captain of the Vanguard. As soon as he passed, their gazes fell on me and I saw several of them nearly break their rigid stance to stare curiously before they caught themselves and resumed their previous posture.  


As we descended a short set of stairs, a woman with her hair fashioned into an extravagant, braided design on top of her head and dressed in a flowing, blue dress passed us in the other direction. She seemed to pay no attention to Erend, but regarded me with what seemed to be a look of disdain.  


“ _What’s your problem?_ ”  


I glared back at her and she quickly averted her gaze, hurrying her pace somewhat as we passed. A bitter taste appeared at the back of my tongue, but I simply tried to swallow it down and ignore it.  


“ _No matter where I go, still an outsider._ ”  


The stairs emptied onto a large, round platform with an incredibly intricate stonework design in the center. I tried to make out what it was supposed to be, but Erend was already turning to the right and approaching another set of stairs, this one occupied by a long line of people that stretched down to the platform below. I swallowed the lump in my throat before following after him, steeling myself for the looks the new crowd would undoubtedly give me.  


As we passed, many people began to whisper and murmur amongst themselves, first about Erend, most seemingly in excitement, before noticing me and falling silent for a moment before resuming their quiet conversations at even faster paces.  


Whatever they were saying, it couldn’t be flattering.  


I clenched my jaw and stared straight ahead at the back of Erend’s armor as he led the way past the crowd, eventually reaching the lower platform and glancing back. He waited for me to reach him before nodding toward the covered bridge that seemed to lead back into the main part of the city.  


We continued in silence until we had left the crowd on the steps to the palace well behind us, at which point he cleared his throat, drawing my gaze.  


“Ignore them,” he said shortly, sparing a quick glance toward me before looking straight ahead, once again. “Talk is a pastime here.”  


I nodded slowly, letting silence fall over us as we reached the far end of the bridge and more Carja guards banged their spears on the ground, straightening up at the sight of the approaching Captain. The difference in volume as soon as we stepped onto the dusty street beyond was jarring. Immediately, I could pick out four different voices shouting above the general hum of people going about their days, but I couldn’t discern any clear words. The tone told me they were probably merchants attempting to advertise their wares, but Erend turned away from the numerous stands and carts loaded with tools, trinkets, and food, instead heading deeper into the winding streets of Meridian.  


My memory of the city told me that it wasn’t particularly wide in any given direction, but it more than made up for it in vertical levels. Footbridges passed overhead, the raised pathways just as packed as the streets below, as people carried wicker baskets and canvas bags under their arms, over their shoulders, and some even on their heads. I caught myself staring at a woman balancing a squat, ceramic vase on the crown of her head as she calmly followed the crowd of people heading toward the outer ring of walkways, only using one hand held casually against the vessel to keep it in place.  


“It’s a distracting place, isn’t it?”  


The sound of Erend’s voice drew my attention back down to the street level to find him watching me with an amused expression.  


“You get used to it… eventually.”  


“I don’t think I ever could…” I muttered, hurrying to catch up to him and regretting it instantly as pain shot through my torso.  


Erend clearly noticed my expression and looked as if he wanted to say something for a moment, but seemed to think better of it and cleared his throat, gesturing farther along the street we had been following.  


“Just a little farther this way.”  


By the time Erend finally turned off the street and into a narrow walkway between two of the tall, stone buildings along one side, I was beginning to feel more than a little overwhelmed by the sheer amount of people and activity about us. I followed him down the short passageway until we reached a familiar sight: a pair of large wooden doors seemingly propped against the doorway, having been ripped from their hinges by one overzealous Captain during an investigation… how long ago? Time was starting to feel like it meant very little, lately.  


“The, uh, doors aren’t quite fixed, yet,” Erend remarked, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly as he glanced back at me. “I’ll have a guard posted to make sure no one else wanders in.”  


“A personal bodyguard? I’m starting to feel kind of important.”  


I caught the redness that quickly spread across his face before he turned away, clearing his throat and leading the way into the apartment. The interior was about as I remembered, except for one notable exception: the gaping hole that revealed a stone staircase leading into a dark basement to the left of the main room just inside the front door.  


“ _When did that get there?_ ”  


Suddenly, images of a heavy stack of metal bars on top of a wooden pallet drifted across my mind’s eye and I blinked rapidly for a moment or two.  


“ _Oh, right, I did that…_ ”  


Had I? When?  


A throbbing pain began to build in my temples and I massaged them with my fingertips for a moment before glancing around to realize that Erend was nowhere to be seen. Before I could start wondering if I had slipped into another strange vision, I heard footsteps above me and I glanced toward the stairs to my right. He suddenly appeared on the top steps, leaning forward slightly to look down at me.  


“You coming?”  


I nodded, walking over to them and taking a deep breath before climbing the wooden steps a little slower than normal. By the time I reached the top, my side felt like it was on fire, but I grit my teeth and tried my best to keep from rubbing at the bandages. Erend regarded me with a strange expression for a moment before turning and gesturing to the wide bed in the center of the room.  


“You can make sure everything’s still all there.”  


My eyes quickly caught sight of the pile of clothing at the foot of the bed, as well as the spear and bow laid across it. I quickly moved over to the stack, scanning for signs of the small, metallic trinket that I so desperately hoped hadn’t been taken, above everything else. After several seconds of searching, panic began to set in as I didn’t spot its familiar shape amidst the fur, leather, and wood. Just as I was about to whirl around and question Erend about who had actually taken my things to this room, a faint shimmer in the light of the torch fastened to the wall nearby caught my attention.  


In the center of the neatly-folded tunic before me was the Focus, a faint blue light illuminating the design in its center.  


“ _How did I miss that?_ ”  


With a sigh of relief, I grabbed it from the pile and slipped it on beside my right ear. Immediately, the interface came to life around me, revealing the familiar blue and purple lines, along with the various words and displays that led to the various sub-sections of the device. As I turned back toward Erend, I noticed the yellow diamond indicating the location I had been heading toward before my ill-fated decision to investigate the tall mesa against the wall just over his left shoulder.  


“ _So close, yet so far away…_ ”  


I had no idea where that saying came from, but I found I liked it.  


“I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone so relieved to get their possessions back, before,” Erend quipped, grinning as he folded his arms over his chest.  


“You of all people should know how important this is,” I shot back, tapping the Focus both to indicate it to him and close the interface.  


His grin faltered for a moment before he swallowed heavily and nodded toward the bed.  


“Everything else look as you expect?”  


“Bow, spear, clothes… all seems to be here. If it isn’t, well, I think I might have to admit it was lost before I got here.”  


Suddenly, a thought occurred to me and I whirled around, scanning over the items on the bed for a moment before leaning forward to sift through them. After several seconds of sorting, I didn’t see any sign of my travelling bedroll, but more importantly: the cloak Teb had gifted me seemed to be missing.  


“ _Of all the things to disappear…_ ”  


My face fell as I slowed my searching, resigned to the fact that one of the few gifts anyone had ever given me was now gone. Just as I was about to call off the search, I happened to lift the tunic off the top of the pile. At first, I thought the brown piece of clothing beneath it was simply my leather leggings, but as I looked closer I realized that it didn’t look smooth like leather, but was somewhat rounded and soft. My eyes widened as I quickly set the tunic aside and grabbed the item, feeling its soft surface before unfolding it to find the stitched leather crest of the flame atop a mountain.  


I heaved a heavy sigh of relief as I held the cloak to my chest for a moment before folding it into a neat square, once again, this time leaving the crest visible.  


“What is that?”  


“A gift from an old friend,” I replied, glancing over my shoulder at Erend.  


He nodded slowly, seemingly unwilling to press further, thankfully.  


“Well, that seems to be everything that I don’t remember losing during the—accident…” I sighed, placing the cloak on top of the clothing, once again, and turning away from the bed.  


“Satisfied?”  


“Well, I’m going to need to replace all of my arrows.”  


“Ammunition is certainly something you’ll find in Meridian,” he replied, laughing. “Speaking of finding things in the city: are you hungry?”  


At the mere thought of food, my stomach rumbled loudly and I frowned, placing one hand over it.  


“Well, that answers that,” he laughed, gesturing for me to follow him back down the stairs. “The last time you were here you tried some Oseram cuisine. Have you had anything from the Carja?”  


“Not to my knowledge,” I replied, following him to the stairs and descending them somewhat slower than he did.  


“I’ll show you one of my favorites in the entire city, then, as long as you’re feeling up to it.”  


“Why wouldn’t I be?”  


“I know you’re still recovering and—”  


“I broke my ribs, not my appetite.”  


He let out a hearty laugh that brought a small grin to my face, even despite the small flare of pain that shot through my torso from taking the final step with a little more force than I had intended.  


“Or your sense of humor, it seems,” he remarked, pausing at the front doors and glancing back, “or is that a result of the accident, maybe?”  


“Just because you weren’t aware of it before doesn’t mean it didn’t exist.”


	12. Meridian Never Drinks Alone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Monday and I hope most of you are not living somewhere as unseasonably cold this time of year as where I am.
> 
> In regards to the story: what is one to do in a big city when you have some mandated time off?

The walk from the apartment to wherever Erend was taking me to eat was much less quiet and awkward compared to the trip from the palace minutes ago. As we passed various merchants’ stalls and carts, Erend pointed out some of the things that he thought were the most interesting at each one. For the most part, I humored him, seeing as it seemed to keep him in a good mood.  


Just as we were passing one particular merchant who Erend described as a “delver,” something on his table caught my eye and I came to a stop. I barely noticed Erend walking several feet further before he, too, came to a stop and walked quickly back to me.  


“What is it?”  


I picked up the item off the table and turned it over in my fingers several times. It didn’t look exceedingly remarkable at first glance, simply seeming to be a piece of purple-tinted glass attached to a black, metal cap at one end, but something compelled me toward it.  


“ _I’ve seen one of these before…_ ”  


“What was that?”  


My face began to heat up as I realized that I had apparently spoken aloud. I quickly cleared my throat, glancing toward Erend quickly before turning my attention back to the strange trinket.  


“I think I’ve seen one of these before.”  


“On one of your adventures to some ruins?”  


I frowned slightly as I tried to recall why it seemed so familiar, but the reason didn’t immediately present itself.  


“I’m not sure…”  


“You seem mighty interested in that little piece, girl,” the merchant suddenly stepped in, appearing on the other side of the table. “Found that’un in the ruins of an old city to the west, near Brightmarket.”  


“How much?”  


He seemed somewhat surprised by how quickly I had responded, spluttering slightly as he attempted to recover.  


“Seein’ as you’re the first person who’s looked at it like a prized family heirloom, I’ll cut a deal. Fifteen shards.”  


“Don’t play that game with her,” Erend snapped. “She may be new to Meridian, but—”  


“Deal.”  


Both the merchant and Erend looked surprised by my response, bringing an amused grin to my face as I turned to the latter.  


“Can I pay you back?”  


He didn’t seem to register my request for a moment before seeming to snap out of his reverie and reach into his pocket. The merchant took the metal pieces before glancing toward me and nodding curtly.  


“Enjoy.”  


As we moved away from the merchant’s table, I continued to turn the small trinket over in my fingers.  


“Do you really know what that thing is?”  


“I said I’d pay you back, didn’t I?”  


“I’m not concerned about the shards…”  


“Then don’t worry about it.”  


I shot him a coy smirk before wrapping my hand around the slim piece of glass and metal and letting it hang at my side. Erend regarded me with a disbelieving expression for a few moments before finally chuckling and shaking his head, but otherwise saying nothing. A minute or two later, he gestured to the left and led the way onto a wider street than the one we had been travelling along for almost the entire time since we had left the apartment.  


Almost immediately, I was overwhelmed by the smell that hung in the air. It was like a cloud of spices had descended over the street, the air seemingly made hazy by the steam and smoke from the various cauldrons, roasts, and fires behind the stalls of the merchants. As we passed the first few, my eyes travelled from hunks of roasted meat to bubbling stews to bright vegetables, all clearly on display and all appearing incredibly delicious. My mouth was watering enough that I began to worry I would start visibly drooling, prompting me to self-consciously run the back of my hand over my mouth.  


We passed several stalls on each side, Erend seemingly disregarding countless options that almost prompted me to stop, but the sense of purpose in his stride led me to believe that he had a particular goal in mind. After we had gone almost halfway down the street of amazing scents and inviting colors, he came to an abrupt stop and I nearly ran into him.  


“Careful,” he remarked, glancing back with a smirk.  


“Why did you stop?”  


“Because the queue begins here.”  


“Queue?”  


He nodded over his shoulder and I leaned around him to see a line of people all standing in single-file. My gaze followed the line all the way to a particular wooden stand up ahead, where a man with intricately braided hair and wearing a stained apron worked quickly to hand out plates of some kind of food while simultaneously taking small piles of shards from the outstretched hands of his waiting customers.  


“These people are all waiting for this one stall?”  


“Mhm,” Erend replied, nodding as he rubbed his hands together before him.  


“Why?”  


“You’ll see.”  


His coy expression told me that he would reveal no more, so I settled on rolling my eyes and resigning myself for a long wait, however I began to notice that we were drawing closer to the front much faster than I had expected. Within only a minute or two, we were next in line. As the man in the apron turned to address us, his eyes lit up and he began to laugh.  


“Well, look what the sun has blessed us with today: the Captain of the esteemed Vanguard.”  


“Don’t lay it on so thick, now,” Erend replied, laughing as he approached the table at the front of the stall.  


The two men punched each other in the shoulder playfully before the man in the stall turned around to grab a plate from the man handing it to him from the preparation area.  


“One special plate, as usual.”  


“And one for Aloy, here, as well.”  


The man in the stall turned his attention to me only for his eyes to widen slightly.  


“The machine rider, at my stall?”  


I immediately began to feel my face heat up as I heard murmurs pass amongst the people behind me.  


“By the sun, I have had many a people pass by, but I never would have imagined you would be one.”  


“Okay, okay, Raif, you can calm the praise, a bit,” Erend interjected.  


“My apologies,” he said, placing one hand to his chest. “Aloy, was it? Despite how your reputation precedes you, that is one thing that does not seem to come with it.”  


I hesitated for a moment before clearing my throat.  


“Uh, yeah, that’s me. Aloy.”  


The man smiled and bowed his head slightly before grabbing another plate from the man behind him and presenting it to me.  


“Enjoy, and I hope you will stop by again.”  


I took the offered plate and nodded awkwardly before quickly slipping to the side and following Erend as he led the way away from the stall.  


“I’m sorry about him,” he said quickly. “Raif can be—”  


“Dramatic?”  


Erend laughed and nodded.  


“That’s putting it nicer than I would.”  


With a smirk, I glanced down at the plate in my hands. Whatever was on it seemed to be some kind of meat smothered in a dark-colored sauce, along with a piece of thick, yet flat, bread and some kind of paste.  


“What is all this?”  


“Just try it.”  


I gave Erend a look that clearly conveyed my apprehension as he simply laughed and nudged me with his elbow.  


“You won’t die.”  


With a deep breath, I gingerly grabbed one of the chunks of meat between two fingers and popped it into my mouth. Immediately, the explosion of flavor spilled across my tongue and my eyes widened slightly. It was unlike anything I had experienced before: simultaneously strong and overwhelming while the faintest hints of spices and whatever the sauce was made of slowly appeared the longer it lingered in my mouth. As I finally swallowed, Erend looked to me expectantly.  


“What is this?”  


The excitement in my tone prompted him to laugh, taking a bite off his plate before replying.  


“Raif says it’s some kind of secret he learned from someone out in the Forbidden West, who learned it from the Old Ones…”  


Erend waved dismissively as he clearly recounted whatever tale the man at the stall had told him before.  


“I don’t know where he learned it, but he calls it a _hira_.”  


I looked down at the plate for a moment before nodding slowly and grabbing another piece of the meat.  


“Whatever it is,” I said, trying to talk around the clump of food in my mouth, “it’s amazing.”  


Within only a minute or two, I had finished the entire rest of my plate, leaving Erend to regard me with a look of amazement before shaking his head and laughing heartily.  


“Fire and spit, I’ve never seen someone so slender eat so fast.”  


A strange, tight feeling appeared in my chest at his words, along with a warm feeling in my face, but I quickly pushed past it.  


“Guess I’m just full of surprises.”  


Once Erend had finished his food, he directed me to return the plate to a waiting cart already loaded down with what appeared to be dozens of empty plates. I made sure not to accidentally drop my trinket from the stall earlier as I deposited my plate and followed Erend back out of the street and away from the lovely smelling food.  


“My mother always told me that a good meal certainly helps the body heal,” he remarked, patting his stomach as he glanced over at me.  


“I’ll get back to you on my review of that.”  


He laughed, once again, but as it died out, the conversation did not continue. The sounds of the busy streets around us prevented it from becoming truly silent, but the awkward tension that hung between us was incredibly noticeable. Finally, Erend cleared his throat, prompting my attention to return to him.  


“Listen, I… I’m sorry for how I came across, earlier,” he muttered, rubbing the back of his neck. “I… I’m just worried about Ersa, s’all, and…”  


His eyes stared vacantly off to my left, but I could clearly see the struggle occurring behind them. Finally, he let his hand fall to his side, once again, with a heavy sigh.  


“Will you still help?”  


I stared back at him for several long moments before I swallowed the lump in my throat and shifted my stance slightly.  


“I mean, Avad did ask, too…”  


“I know, and… I just want to hear it from you, as well… for me.”  


After several long moments of seemingly staring each other down, I slowly nodded.  


“Yeah, I will.”  


Erend nodded in response, as well.  


“Thank you.”  


“Man, laying it on thick, ain’t he?”  


The sound of the second voice caused me to instantly grow tense, my eyes flicking to the left of Erend to find an image that I had desperately hoped not to. The younger Elisabet, now sporting a top similar to the one I had seen in my reflection during my dream about the strange house and a pair of tan leggings that stopped just below her knees, stood beside Erend, an amused smirk on her face as she braced her hands on her hips.  


“Surprised he hasn’t gone in for the kiss, yet.”  


She flashed me a devilish smirk before making a face and extremely exaggerated noises with her lips.  


“Are you—uh—is everything okay, Aloy?”  


I quickly glanced back over at Erend to see him regarding me with a concerned expression, glancing in the vague direction I had a moment ago, but he clearly didn’t see the girl dressed in clothing a thousand years out of place.  


“You know, if you want him to look some more,” the image of Elisabet said, suddenly appearing right next to me, leaning against my shoulder and causing the hair on the back of my neck to stand up at the feeling of someone actually touching me, “you should show some more skin.”  


I tried not to react to her presence, swallowing against the hard lump in my throat as I tried to form a response to Erend.  


“Yeah, fine, just… something shiny caught my eye.”  


He glanced behind him, once again, clearly seeing that there was nothing remotely fitting that description in the street, but it allowed me to flash an angry glare at the young Elisabet next to me.  


“Y’know, roll the shirt up a bit, bare some of those rock-hard abs.”  


As the image reached over to pat me on the stomach, I physically shuddered when it felt like someone had actually touched me. At that exact moment, Erend happened to turn around, the look of concern on his face growing deeper.  


“Is it your injury? Pain flaring up?”  


“Yes,” I said quickly, causing him to recoil slightly, but the expression didn’t lessen.  


“We can find somewhere to rest for a little while, if that helps—”  


“No, I—I’m…”  


I trailed off, too focused on trying not to look over at the image of the intrusive look-alike to actually form a coherent sentence.  


“I’m good, I’m good,” I finally managed, nodding as I reached to brush some of my hair away from my face and noticed how much my hand was trembling, as I did.  


I could hear the quiet laughter of the strange Elisabet beside me as I forced every fiber of my being to ignore her and keep my focus on Erend.  


“If I’m not going anywhere right now, what’s something interesting to do, here?”  


Erend seemed somewhat surprised by my question but quickly worked to recover.  


“Y-you mean, like… for fun?”  


“Well, I’d hope you wouldn’t try to bore me for three days.”  


“I didn’t realize I was your personal guide of Meridian for that time.”  


“Well, you were the one who said he’d keep me here, right?”  


Erend’s face began to turn red as he nervously rubbed at the back of his neck, once again.  


“Well, I-I… uh…”  


“So, show me something interesting.”  


He stared at me seemingly in disbelief for several moments before clearing his throat and gesturing vaguely over his shoulder.  


“This way.”

 

The orange lights of the lanterns and the warm glows from candles just inside the glass seemed to streak before my eyes as I found my feet weaving an uneven path down the dirt street. The crowds from earlier in the day had long since dispersed, leaving them open for just me. At least, it seemed to feel that way. As my footing wobbled, once again, and I raised my arms to either side of me to restore balance, uncontrollable laughter escaped me.  


I had felt this way before, once…  


Suddenly, a metallic jingling brought my attention from my feet to the street ahead of me to find two dark silhouettes approaching. My heart began to pound as I tried to gauge whether I would actually be able to fight in any capacity, but a moment later the figures came into view and I allowed myself to relax, once again. Two Carja guards walked past, regarding me with wary expressions before glancing behind me and smirking. I spun in place, nearly tripping over my own feet, to find Erend coming to a short stop to avoid running into me.  


“Sorry,” he muttered.  


“I-I… I forgot you were following me!”  


My tongue felt heavy as I tried to speak, causing several of the words to blend together, which only brought more laughter. A faint ache came from my side, but I was mostly able to ignore it as I wavered in place slightly, keeping my arms slightly raised to either side.  


“Someone’s gotta make sure you get home.”  


“I can get home, s—s’not a problem…”  


I turned in place, pointing ahead of me as I did. As soon as I settled on the direction I thought I needed to go, I quickly realized that I didn’t recognize any of the buildings.  


“Ah, shit…”  


“What was that?”  


“I said ‘ah shit!’” I repeated, turning to look at Erend and seeing him wince at the volume of my voice, which quickly prompted me to place my hand over my mouth, my shoulders shaking with laughter. “Sorry, din’t mean t’be loud.”  


“Let’s just get you back to the apartment, okay?”  


I nodded and slid to one side, gesturing in the direction we had previously been walking with both hands.  


“Lead th’way.”  


Erend began to walk down the street, but glanced over to make sure I was beside him. I guess I had been a little over-confident in my ability to navigate the streets when drunk.  


Was I drunk? Was that what this was?  


I had been drunk before.  


Once.  


No… not just once.  


But when else?  


It was kinda fun.  


Why didn’t I do this more often?  


The next thing I knew, Erend was leading me down a narrow alleyway, a lone Carja guard standing in front of a doorway that featured a wooden door leaning precariously against one side of the opening. The guard said something to Erend, but I didn’t catch it as I slipped between them, entering the apartment and heading toward the stairs to my right. As I reached them, my balanced tipped to one side and I fell against the wall, letting out a quiet groan as my shoulder hit the hard stone.  


“Easy there.”  


The next moment, Erend appeared beside me, gingerly gripping my upper arm and pulling me away from the wall and into a normal standing position.  


“Let’s get you up the stairs safely, yeah?”  


I just nodded and he gently tugged at my arm to start me up the wooden incline. The trip to the second floor felt like it took much longer than it should have, but I finally reached the top and quickly hurried forward, slipping from Erend’s grasp. A moment later, I fell face-first onto the bed, burying my face in the soft, red blankets on top of it and letting out a heavy sigh.  


“Are you—uh—you okay?”  


“I’m—” I rolled over, shaking my hair out of my face so I could more clearly see Erend, “—great.”  


He grinned, but kept his distance from the bed.  


“You going to be okay from here?”  


“You’re not going to make me walk anymore, are ya?”  


“Nope.”  


“Then prob’ly.”  


Erend nodded and began to say something else, but a sudden thought crossed my mind and my eyes widened, my hands quickly patting at my torso as I was vaguely aware of his voice coming to a stop. After a few seconds of frantically searching my person, I swore under my breath and glanced around the surface of the bed nearby.  


“Is… everything okay?”  


“My trin—tran—the thing I bought!” I said, glancing over at him, once again. “Where’d it go?”  


“You, uh…”  


I could just make out a redness spreading across his cheeks as he made a motion to pull his shirt from his neck and gestured down it. Confusion came over me as I stared back at him for a moment or two before the realization of what his motions meant hit me and I let out an “oh” before reaching down the neckline of my top. Sure enough, my fingers came into contact with something small and quite distinctly not natural. I pulled the small trinket from its hiding place and breathed a sigh of relief, holding it up before me.  


Why in the hell had I put it there?  


“ _No pockets._ ”  


I guess.  


“Well, glad you found it, now, uh—”  


“Do you know what this is?”  


His mouth still hung open after my interruption, but slowly closed as he shook his head.  


“I thought you knew.”  


“I do. I just wanted to know if you did.”  


“Oh… well, no.”  


“C’mere.”  


I waved him over as I grinned, sliding back farther onto the bed and folding my legs before me. Erend’s face ran a series of emotions and reactions before he finally cleared his throat and approached the bed. I pat the surface of the blanket beside me before turning my attention to the small, glass-like trinket in my hands. My head tilted to the side as I raised my shoulder until I was able to tap the side of my Focus with it and bring the interface to life. Almost immediately, a box appeared around the trinket in my hand as a white bar began to appear, moving from left to right across it.  


A moment later, the bar disappeared and was replaced with some text.  


“Video file scanned. Begin playback?”  


I tapped the “Y” option below the message and a large, rectangular screen appeared before me, obscuring the far wall of the room as I found myself smiling and leaning back on the bed, carefully placing the memory stick by the pillows and bracing my arms behind me to keep me in a more or less seated position.  


A moment later, the dark screen began to change, moving and shifting as words appeared on it. Several names and what appeared to be their titles flashed across the dark screen as I noticed Erend shifting uncomfortably out of the corner of my eye.  


“Oh, right,” I said suddenly, rolling my eyes and reaching toward my Focus. “You gotta put this on.”  


He glanced down at the device in my hand for a moment or two with an expression of apprehension before slowly taking it and gingerly holding it by his ear, as I had worn it moments ago. Suddenly, the device snapped into place and he let out a cry of surprise, flailing his arms slightly as the entire bed shook from his reaction. I began to laugh uncontrollably, only forcing myself to calm down when the pain in my side began to finally break through my intoxicated haze.  


“W-what… what is…?”  


“It’s called a ‘movie,’” I said, still laughing slightly, but the amusement was quickly tempered by confusion as the strange word had seemingly rolled off my tongue so effortlessly. “I-I think…”  


“A… move-ie?” Erend said slowly, staring enraptured at the wall across from us as I could only imagine what he must be seeing right then.  


“Uh, y-yeah, I… heard it… somewhere in a…”  


My stomach suddenly churned and I put one hand over it, clamping my jaw shut tightly. I must have made a sound, because, Erend suddenly turned back toward me, quickly reaching to take the Focus off and dropping it on the bed beside him.  


“Are you all right?”  


I shook my head, determined to keep my lips closed as firmly as I could. Erend’s eyes widened slightly as he leapt from the bed, staggering slightly before hurrying toward the stairs. As soon as he disappeared, my stomach lurched, once again, and I turned toward the edge of the bed. The first retch immediately sent pain shooting through my abdomen, prompting me to groan loudly and press against where I knew the bandages to be while falling onto my back. A moment later, I heaved, once again and I desperately tried to roll onto my side, but the pain on my left was intense enough that it nearly brought tears to my eyes, so I quickly flung myself to the right, coughing up another bout of vomit across the red comforter on the bed.  


“ _Fuck me, why did I ever think this would be a good idea?_ ”  


A moment later, I heard the pounding footsteps of Erend coming back upstairs, followed soon after by a muttered curse. A pair of large hands gently gripped my upper arms and pulled me into a sitting position at the end of the bed. As my stomach heaved, once again, a wooden bucket appeared before me. I was forced to stare down into it as I continued to heave for what felt like another hour, but was most likely only minutes. Finally, I heaved a sigh and leaned back, wiping at my mouth with the back of my hand.  


“I wanted t’say something earlier at the pub, but by the way you were suddenly puttin’ those drinks back, I figured you must have known what you were doing.”  


“I did, once upon a time, maybe,” I muttered, a shiver suddenly shooting through my body and prompting more pain to flare in my side.  


“Oh? And when was that?”  


“College…”  


Erend fell silent for a few moments before clearing his throat.  


“That, uh, that some kind of special thing for the Nora?”  


Confusion creased my face as I looked back over at him.  


“I mean, anyone ‘n go nowadays. Y’know, like school and all’sat?”  


Erend simply stared back at me with an unreadable expression on his face for several moments before laughing and shaking his head slowly.  


“I think you need sleep.”  


“I mean, sure, but…”  


I glanced back at the bed and gestured to the small pool of vomit in the center of the comforter.  


“Here, I’ll take care of that. I can get you another blanket, if you need it.”  


I nodded slowly before he carefully helped me to my feet. My knees felt even more unsteady than they had before, but I managed to hold myself from falling over while Erend removed the comforter and began to carry it toward the stairs.  


“Bucket’s right there, if you need’er.”  


I nodded in acknowledgement as I took a seat on the end of the bed, staring straight ahead at the wall for a moment before falling onto my back, letting my arms splay out to either side of me. I knew I had to be sitting still, but the candles from around the room seemed to be swirling, creating a circle out of the streaks of light. Even when my eyes were closed, the sensation of spinning didn’t go away, and neither did the streaks of light, it seemed. As I squeezed my eyes shut tighter, the lights only spun faster, until I was certain I was about to vomit, yet again.  


Just before my stomach could try to expel anything else, however, the lights seemed to snap into place and I found a sharp jolt shooting through my body, as if I had suddenly kicked something very hard. A moment later, I realized that I could feel my weight pressed against my feet and that it felt like I was standing. I blinked several times, but instead of revealing the softly-lit apartment in Meridian, I found myself in the middle of a rather dark, metal building, although sporadic lights here and there about the large, open space gave me a rough idea of its shape.  


After a few moments, the realization that I knew this room began to take over and I swallowed at the heavy lump in my throat.  


“I’m back…”  


I began to walk farther into the darkened main hub of the Zero Dawn facility, scanning the shadowy corners and dark windows into the various subfunction areas for signs of life, but other than the emergency-level lighting, I seemed to be alone. As I reached the railing that ran around the slightly raised platform in the center of the room, I noticed a dark shape sitting in the center of it. I froze for a moment, my eyes locking on it before I realized that it hadn’t moved, and was probably not going to suddenly jump up and stab me with any sharp appendages.  


As I moved around the railing until I came to one of the walkways up to the strange object, I swore I caught motion at the corners of my vision, but every time I turned to look, there was nothing there. My footsteps sounded like thunder as I stepped onto the metal walkway, each one echoing about the room for seconds afterward, the pitch distorting and changing slowly with each reflection.  


Finally, as I drew closer to the item, I began to make out its shape: a steel box, roughly three or four feet long on each side. A small screen suddenly came to life on its top as I approached, showing one simple line of text: “Open?”  


I tentatively reached forward, placing my hand on the outline beside the phrase. An electronic beep sounded from the crate, echoing around the room as I heard the sound of heavy locks disengaging from within it. A small chirp sounded from the locking mechanism as I pulled my hand away, glancing down at the screen to see the message had changed.  


“Confirmed: Dr. Elisabet Sobeck.”  


A shiver ran down my spine as I carefully gripped the handle beside the screen and braced myself to pull it open. Before I did, however, a flickering light from before me caught my attention and I looked up toward the darkened window to my former office. A single figure stood in the darkness, the image flickering and wavering slightly, as if on a screen, or…  


“GAIA…?”  


The image suddenly flickered and flashed one last time before disappearing. A heavy feeling appeared in my chest as I looked back down at the crate, where I still gripped the cold, metal handle. Suddenly, I realized that the screen on it had changed, once again, revealing a similar, flickering image of GAIA’s face. I jumped in surprise, but the hair on the back of my neck truly stood on end as a voice came from the crate, as well.  


“Not yet… not… safe.”  


The voice sounded severely distorted and scrambled, several of the words changing pitch rather drastically, but there was just enough of the original sound to be recognizable.  


“GAIA?”  


“Not… safe.”  


Suddenly, the lights in the room seemed to come back on with one bright flash and I closed my eyes, throwing my hands up to protect them, as well. Another voice began to break through the haze that had suddenly appeared around me, but I realized that it was most certainly not GAIA’s, even with her broken, garbled sound from moments ago.  


“ _Charles?_ ”  


A moment later, sound seemed to return to normal with a final rushing sound, almost like I had suddenly flown from underwater into the air above it, once again.  


“Hey, hey, you okay?”  


My eyes shot open to find not a brightly-lit facility made of metal and glass, but a warmly-lit stone ceiling and the concerned face of a man sporting some rather interesting facial hair.  


Wait.  


Erend?  


Erend.  


How did I…?  


“Aloy, are you okay?”  


Aloy?  


But the crate just called me Elisabet.  


Who was she…?  


Oh, that was me.  


“ _What the fuck?_ ”  


I groaned, closing my eyes again for a moment, but nodding. When they reopened, Erend looked somewhat relieved, but there were still hints of worry on his features.  


“When I came back up, you were… muttering,” he said. “It sounded like the same thing, over and over again.”  


“What—?” I croaked, but was forced to stop and clear my throat before I continued. “What was I saying?”  


He frowned slightly before answering.  


“Not yet. Not safe.”  


Immediately, the sound of a broken and garbled female voice rang in my ears, repeating those same words. I shivered, immediately grimacing at the pain that flared in my side, once again.  


“I, uh, got you a new blanket,” he said, patting something on the bed beside me. “I also rescued your Second Sight device from—uh—getting dirty.”  


He held the small, silver Focus before me, smirking slightly as I sighed, lazily reaching toward it, but missing his hand as it suddenly seemed to double before my eyes.  


“Easy there,” he laughed, gently taking hold of my wrist and placing the Focus in my outstretched fingers.  


I noticed his grip linger for a moment or two before he quickly let go and I brought the device to my ear, sliding it in place, once again. Immediately, the interface activated and the movie I had tried to show him earlier began playing, causing me to jump in surprise. Before I could throw up from the dizziness, once again, I stopped the playback and closed the interface.  


“Here, let’s get you in bed, properly, okay?”  


I nodded as I accepted Erend’s offered hand and let him help pull me to my feet, once again. He spread the brightly-patterned blanket across the bed before stepping back and gesturing to it with both hands.  


“There we go.”  


I nodded and muttered something that was supposed to be “thank you” but came out as a sound that could barely even be called words. Erend grinned before clapping his hands together and glancing toward the stairs.  


“I’ll, uh, stop by in the morning… later in the morning… and make sure you’re okay.”  


I nodded once again, giving him a thumbs-up, which seemed to amuse him further, but he began to head toward the stairs. My hands sought out the bottom of my top, where I remembered the healer tying it in place earlier that day, my fingers running over the smooth fabric for several seconds before I found the knot. The motions felt clumsy as I tried to undo the tied fabric, but I finally managed to grip two ends of it and yank them until the knot came undone, the top immediately falling loosely away from my frame. With a sigh, I yanked it over my head and tossed it toward the end of the bed before stepping forward and falling onto the fuzzy, if slightly scratchy, blanket with a heavy sigh and a slight grimace at the pain in my side.  


A moment later, I heard a cough from behind me and I turned my head to the side, glancing vaguely toward my shoulder, but a mess of red hair blocked my vision.  


“I, uh, you seem good. I’ll see you… l-later. Yeah, later.”  


“ _Oh, you’re still here._ ”  


I made a sound that was supposed to be words, but my tongue didn’t seem to want to respond correctly, so I instead offered a lazy wave in the general direction I remembered Erend’s voice coming from before letting my arm fall onto the bed, once again. At the sound of his footsteps retreating down the wooden stairs, perhaps a little quicker than the previous few times, I let out a sigh and began to grasp at the top of the blanket, pulling it back until I could clumsily crawl under it. Once I was covered, I let out a sigh, feeling my head slowly sink into the soft pillows beneath me.  


“ _Sure beats those cots at Zero Dawn… or the bedroll in the wild._ ”  


As my eyes began to drift close, I swore I caught sight of another figure at my bedside, but something told me this one wasn’t actually there. A soft, amused smile pulled at her lips as the middle-aged woman slowly reached toward me.  


“Pleasant dreams.”


	13. Block Out the Sun

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I said there would be some excitement coming. So here we are.
> 
> It's a long one this week, so I won't waste any more time up here.
> 
> Enjoy.

I groaned as my eyes slowly began to crack open. The familiar stone ceiling appeared over me, although for a moment I found myself expecting silver metal. The light in the room no longer seemed to be coming from the candles or the fireplace nearby, but instead from sunlight. I couldn’t remember where any windows had been, but someone had clearly opened one. As my head lolled to one side, I immediately squeezed my eyes closed against the harsh light that drilled into them like daggers.  


As I began to stir, attempting to drag my arms out from underneath the blanket, I could feel the soreness throughout my body protesting each muscle movement. The pain in my side was certainly the strongest out of all the various aches and pains, but the headache that had suddenly come rushing in was a strong contender. As I finally freed my hands from beneath the blanket, I began to rub at my eyes, the pressure from the motion helping slightly to alleviate the pain.  


Finally, when I felt brave enough, once again, I let my arms fall onto the blanket and slowly opened my eyes. The room was still bright, but the shock was not as strong as it had been before. The slow throbbing in my temples was just slightly offset from the one in my side and I squirmed slightly in discomfort.  


With what felt like a monumental amount of effort, I managed to get myself into a sitting position on the bed, groaning softly as I rubbed at my temples with my fingers.  


“Why did I think listening to Erend was a good idea?”  


I heaved a heavy sigh, grimacing at the pain in my side, and turned to climb out of the bed when something immediately made me freeze in place. I glanced down at myself and let out a yelp of surprise as I noted the immediate lack of clothing. My heart rate immediately leapt as I clawed at the blanket, pulling it over myself and looking wildly around the room for signs of my actual clothing. The bright red and blue cloth didn’t immediately appear after my quick search, but a vague memory from the previous night of tossing the top at the foot of the bed passed before me and I carefully crawled to the end, peering over the edge. Sure enough, the top was lying on the floor, so I quickly reached down and swiped it with one hand, sitting up into a kneeling position and throwing it over my head. My panic only continued to grow as I fought with the garment until I finally managed to get my head and arms through the correct holes.  


I self-consciously pulled the bottom hem down until it touched the blanket around me as I scanned for the leggings, once again, but couldn’t see them from my position. With a sigh, I carefully maneuvered to the edge of the bed and rose to my feet, keeping the bottom hem of the top pulled down as low as it could go, which, thankfully, was rather far, however the cool breeze that came in through the window immediately made me cringe as it blew across the exposed skin of my legs.  


“Damn, if you’re going to take that much clothing off, you’re usually supposed to wake up next to someone else.”  


An uncontrollable yelp escaped me as I leapt an inch or two into the air, spinning around to face the sudden voice and nearly falling over as I found my balance still wasn’t quite as secure as normal. After a few moments of frantic searching, my eyes landed on a figure seated in a chair by the stairs. The smirk set into her features told me all I needed to know to realize who it was, even before I took in the messy, red hair pulled into a single tail behind her head and the bright, hazel eyes that seemed to scan me up and down in a way that made me tug at the bottom of my top even more.  


“Now that was entertaining.”  


I let out an exasperated sigh as I turned away from the young Elisabet and resumed searching for the leggings, once again.  


“First time with a hangover?”  


“A what?”  


I glanced back over at her to see her still looking quite amused, but rolling her eyes dramatically.  


“Sorry. It’s what it’s called when you drink a shit ton the night before and then feel like you’re dying the next morning.”  


“Ah. Then yes.”  


“First time being drunk?”  


“Nope.”  


“Really?”  


“Yeah, that’s because of you.”  


I turned and jabbed a finger at the image accusatorily, causing her to adopt an expression of shock and place one hand over her chest.  


“Me?”  


“Well, you in… the future of you.”  


The shocked expression turned to the same amused smirk before she tilted her head back and laughed rather loudly. It sent shivers down my spine when I noticed that her voice seemed to be echoing about the room, as if she were actually there.  


“ _She’s not, just keep telling yourself that._ ”  


“Afraid that one day I’ll magically pop into the real world, now?” she teased, suddenly appearing on the bed beside me, lying on her stomach and propping her chin up with her hands.  


I shot the image a look before turning and continuing to scour the floor and various areas of the room for the clothing that I was beginning to consider had actually disappeared into thin air.  


“Well, you know, there already is a ‘real’ version of me in your world.”  


I turned around perhaps a little too quickly at that, prompting yet another amused look from her as she made an exaggerated gesture with one hand before pointing at me.  


“It’s you.”  


I sighed and rolled my eyes, turning away from her and finally spotting something bright between some kind of barrel and a large cabinet unit. My feet slid across the wood floor slightly as I hurried over to it and crouched down, holding the back of the top down as I did. With a small cry of victory, I pulled the leggings out from their hiding place and quickly set about pulling them on. Within a few moments, I had managed to secure the top of them around my waist and I breathed a sigh of relief, finally letting my posture relax as I turned back to the bed, but the image of the young Elisabet was gone.  


“Thank the sun,” I muttered, glancing over at the partially open window that was allowing the bright light into the room and grimacing slightly. “On second thought…”  


Just then, the sound of a loud pounding came from downstairs and I instantly snapped into a defensive position, ignoring the pain that shot through my side from the motion. I looked around the room quickly for any sign of my weapons, when a hazy memory from last night came back to me.  


“ _I’ll, uh, stop by in the morning._ ”  


A moment later, the banging came again, but this time a voice came shortly thereafter.  


“Aloy? Are you awake?”  


I cleared my throat, resuming a more normal standing position as I tugged at the bottom of my top slightly, other memories from last night also coming back.  


“Yep.”  


I moved over to the stairs and started to walk down them when Erend appeared at the bottom, fully dressed in his Vanguard garb. His eyes seemed to scan over me for a moment before he blinked quickly and looked off to the side, rubbing the back of his neck. A strange feeling ran through me, and I couldn’t tell if it was good or bad, exactly. It was… something.  


“ _How poetic._ ”  


With a smirk, I reached the bottom of the stairs and placed my hands on my hips, looking up at Erend.  


“So, I’m alive.”  


“That you are. You, uh, your head feeling okay?”  


I shrugged.  


“Can’t say it begins to compare to being trampled by a Strider.”  


I saw his eyes flick to my side for a moment before returning to my eyes.  


“And how’s that feeling?”  


I sighed, lifting the hem of my top enough to reveal the bandages, which didn’t sport any blood stains or any obvious indicators of progress.  


“Still hurts a bit.”  


He glanced down at the bandages for a moment before swallowing and nodding.  


“I’ve seen some nasty injuries from people on the wrong sides of machines, before. Looks like you got lucky.”  


“Well, I guess that’s good for me, then, huh?”  


He tried to offer a grin in response, but it came across more like a grimace and I sighed, letting the top fall from my grasp, once again.  


“I’m not dead, and if anything feel a little better. Okay? I don’t need other people worrying about my problems…”  


“I-I’m not… I mean… I _am_ worried, but… you know… like when any of my Vanguard gets hurt, or if…”  


His mouth hung open for a moment longer before he closed it, his jaw working tensely for several seconds before he sighed, shaking his head and waving dismissively.  


“Glad to hear you’re okay.”  


I regarded him with a curious expression for a moment or two, but Erend began to walk away, wringing his hands before him as he did. After a second or two, he glanced up and suddenly clapped his hands together, turning back toward me.  


“I brought you breakfast.”  


He gestured across the apartment to a small counter that now sported a bronze bowl in the center of it. I raised my eyebrows at him slightly and approached the fixture, glancing down into the bowl to find some fruit, bread, and what appeared to be some kind of cheese. I picked out the mystery cheese first, turning over the small brick in my fingers. It was mainly white in color, although also appeared to sport something red and green sprinkled throughout.  


“What is this?”  


“Cheese.”  


I gave Erend an exasperated look as he laughed, stepping closer and leaning against the counter with one arm.  


“It’s a special type some of the merchants here in Meridian make that includes some of the peppers from the farmlands below. You like spicy foods?”  


I shrugged, ripping off a piece and popping it into my mouth. A few moments later, I could feel the heat from the peppers spreading across my tongue like a wildfire and I quickly swallowed the rest of the bite and grabbed one of the apples from the bowl. I bit into the fruit, tearing off a rather sizable chunk and quickly beginning to chew it, pressing my tongue against the pieces in an attempt to use the water within to wash away the spiciness. Erend simply laughed, banging his fist on the counter.  


“Sorry, it’s a favorite of mine, but I didn’t realize you weren’t as partial to spicy foods.”  


“It’s—it’s fine,” I managed, swallowing the chunks of apple before dropping the rest of the block of cheese back in the bowl and continuing with the fruit. “So, still sticking to keeping me in Meridian for two more days?”  


The amused look on Erend’s face began to fade as he cleared his throat uncomfortably.  


“I mean, Aloy, Janna is acting in the interest of keeping you healthy—”  


“I understand, but…” I interrupted, sighing heavily as I stared down at the apple with a large bite mark on one side, “I don’t have time to just sit around.”  


“And where do you have to be that’s so pressingly important?”  


There was a slight edge to his voice that immediately drew my attention back to him, my hands tensing into slight fists as I tried to avoid allowing the shaking in them to be too obvious, as well.  


“Erend, I already told you I would—”  


“I know, but something tells me that you’re not in such a hurry to get out there looking for Ersa.”  


“I actually am, Erend,” I spat, bringing the apple down on the counter with more force than I had intended and causing the bowl to slide a few inches across the wooden surface. “In addition to that, though, there are other things I need to continue that have some pretty big consequences.”  


“To whom?”  


“Everyone.”  


We met each other’s gaze for several long seconds before he finally sighed, looking away first to rub his eyes with one hand.  


“I’m assuming that’s tied into wherever you’ve been…”  


“Yes, it is, and there’s a reason I’ve spent so much time on it already, but it’s also not done.”  


After several long moments of silence, I sighed, glancing down at the apple under my hand and finally allowing myself to relax my grip on it.  


“And I was hoping that I could possibly ask your help with it, someday.”  


Erend seemed surprised by that, looking over at me with an unreadable expression on his face.  


“What is this ‘thing’ that you’ve been dealing with, Aloy?”  


I opened my mouth to answer when suddenly a loud rumble sounded in the distance and I felt the floor shake beneath us. Erend noticed it, as well, looking around for a moment before pushing away from the counter.  


“Fire and spit, what was that?”  


I left the apple on the counter, following Erend out the front door of the apartment and down the short entryway to the street beyond. The guard that had previously stood at the door was now standing there, as well, looking up toward the sky behind us.  


“By the sun!”  


He pointed, along with several other citizens, over our heads, prompting Erend and I to spin around and look up. As we did, my eyes widened. A plume of dark smoke was just beginning to curl into the sky. Moments later, the sounds of panicked screams began to drift across the rooftops to us, as well.  


“We’re under attack!” Erend barked, grabbing the Carja guard and shaking him aware, again. “Rally the rest of the guard and be prepared for anything. Got it?”  


The man nodded before turning and tearing off down the street, his long scepter-like weapon held tightly in one hand. Erend turned back to me with a dark expression on his face.  


“After what we just talked about, I don’t want to—”  


“I’ll be ready in a minute.”  


“Aloy, you’re injured, I can’t—”  


“Ask me? Good. You don’t have to.”  


With that I hurried back inside the apartment, sprinting up the stairs and sliding to a stop in the bedroom at the top. Immediately, the pain in my side bloomed stronger than it had since the initial incident, but I simply grit my teeth and pressed one hand against the center of the pain.  


“You can’t afford this right now.”  


Images of Corruptors and Eclipse soldiers swarming Meridian, along with whatever this HADES was, filled my mind, pressing me to snap out of my haze and scramble to find my equipment. After a few seconds of searching, I found my normal clothing on a chair more or less across from the end of the bed. I glanced down at myself for a moment before grinding my teeth and ripping the silky top over my head.  


“Fuck it.”  


I pulled on the fur and leather outer tunic adorned with metal pieces on the shoulders and some across the stomach. Once I had managed to adjust it so it was in place normally, I pulled on the skirt section over the red leggings, as they fit tighter to my legs than the top did to my torso, at least as they were at that moment. Once I had secured the skirt in place and pulled on my pair of boots from beneath the chair, I spun in place, looking for my weapons. After several seconds of fruitless searching, my eyes caught the tall, wooden storage cabinet, beside which I had found my leggings earlier that morning. I quickly strode over to it and threw the doors open, revealing wooden pegs along the doors and in the center section, most likely designed to hang clothing from, but my eyes quickly caught sight of my familiar bow hanging from one of them.  


I quickly pulled the weapon from its resting place and slung it across my torso before I scanned the center compartment of the cabinet. Finally, my eyes caught sight of the bright ribbons wrapped around the staff of my spear leaning against the back wall and I yanked it free, spinning the weapon in my hands deftly before sliding it into its holster on my back. My quiver was resting on the bottom of the same compartment, but as I pulled it free, I was reminded that I had lost all of my ammunition when the Strider had nearly killed me in the desert.  


“Oh, come on…”  


With a sigh, I strapped the quiver to my waist, anyway, and hurried back to the stairs, skipping down them as quickly as I dared and grimacing at each step as pain flared in my side. Once I reached the bottom, I staggered slightly, breathing much heavier than I was used to, but forced myself to stand up straight and jog out of the apartment, reaching the street a moment later.  


Erend had waited, but was fidgeting with the straps to his armor. When he saw me coming, he glanced in my direction before turning to give me more attention a moment later. I realized I must have been somewhat of a sight, as I had been forced to forgo my usual leather tunic underneath my outer, armored tunic and the bright red, silky leggings stood out quite clearly from underneath my fur-and-metal skirt. Maybe if I couldn’t intimidate whoever was attacking me, I could at least gain a moment of confusion.  


“Ready?”  


He stared back at me for a few more moments before nodding and turning to begin running down the street. As I took off after him, the pain from my injury immediately made itself apparent, once again, but I kept telling myself that I couldn’t let it get to me. By now, the plume of smoke had grown wider and darker, while the screams had grown louder.  


“ _Never a good combination._ ”  


As we rounded a corner, we came upon a mob of people all clearly having just fled whatever was going on as I noticed men, women, and children all grabbing others and holding them while either crying or looking around fearfully. We were forced to slow our pace due to the crowd, although Erend’s booming voice did a good job of clearing a path. As we broke through the main pack, we found a line of Carja soldiers standing guard at the edge of the bridge to the palace. I quickly glanced toward the sky, but the smoke didn’t seem to be coming from ahead of us.  


“Why is the palace blocked off?”  


“Defense,” Erend growled. “No one attacks Meridian without looking to kill Avad.”  


With that, he strode toward the guards, who all immediately recognized him and moved to allow him past.  


“What happened?” Erend demanded, looking between them.  


“We don’t know,” one said, shaking his head. “There was an explosion and the fire is already spreading rapidly.”  


“Any sign of who did it?”  


“No.”  


Erend sighed, glancing back at me.  


“It will be safer in the palace.”  


“I can still handle myself.”  


He clearly fought with what he wanted to say before sighing and nodding.  


“I need to check in with Avad. You go ahead and get a head start, see what you can do to help in the meantime.”  


I nodded and spun on my heel to run in the direction of the ever-growing black smoke. By this time, it was threatening to block out the sunlight from overhead as I slipped past all of the people running in the opposite direction. Several of them shouted that I was crazy, but I ignored them, pushing closer to the sounds of what must have been the fire.  


After winding my way through the maze of Meridian streets, I had a feeling I was growing closer as the roaring sound was growing louder, while the temperature was also rising. I ran the back of one hand across my forehead to wipe the sweat away before it could land in my eyes, but I could clearly feel how slick my skin was to the touch.  


“Not just the normal Sundom heat…”  


As I rounded the next corner, I skidded to a halt, finding myself facing a wall of fire at the far end of the street. The heat immediately leapt up, while the black smoke completely obscured everything above the fiery blaze.  


“ _I guess now would be the time to figure out how we were going to put this fire out._ ”  


I glanced around for several seconds, but nothing immediately presented itself as a quick solution, so I swore under my breath and doubled back, trying to find another angle on the fire. After guessing several dead-end streets, I ended up in a larger, open area with what appeared to be some kind of fountain in the center of it. The buildings on the far side of the opening were all engulfed in flames, already leaving only hints of what their vague outlines had once been. Several Carja soldiers were still rushing about the area, trying to lead some citizens away from the flames and smoke, and others still seemingly searching for a solution to the fire, itself. As I approached them, one of the soldiers gave me a strange look.  


“It’s not safe here, ma’am.”  


“I’m here to help.”  


“Unless you know how to conjure water from thin air, then unfortunately I don’t think there’s much you can do, right now.”  


I ground my teeth for several moments before glancing back the way I had come.  


“Is there any way to get the water from below the mesa to use up here?”  


“We have water up here, but no good way to dump lots of it on a blaze this size.”  


“You got buckets?”  


“Are you serious?”  


“Well, your other option is to let it all burn.”  


The soldiers exchanged looks before one of them let out a frustrated growl.  


“Get as many men with buckets as you can and start filling up from this fountain!”  


As they went to take off, I grabbed the first soldier by the arm and brought him to a stop.  


“How did the fire start?”  


“There was a loud explosion from the warehouse area up ahead, and within minutes this fire had sprung up.”  


I stared past the burning buildings in the vague direction the soldier had indicated a moment ago before shaking my head and looking back over at him.  


“Has anyone seen any suspicious people around who might have set it off?”  


“Define suspicious.”  


“Anyone wearing strange, painted masks and shouting about a buried shadow?”  


The guard regarded me with a strange look for several moments before slowly shaking his head.  


“Ma’am, are you saying this was the Shadow Carja?”  


I bit my lip for a moment before releasing him from my grasp, already beginning to head back the way I had come.  


“I’m not sure yet.”  


With that, I took off running back in the direction I remembered taking to get to the fire from the palace. After a minute or two of frantic scrambling through oddly empty streets, I found myself at the line of Carja soldiers at the end of the bridge to the palace. As I approached, they made no motions to step aside, prompting me to skid to a stop before I ran into them.  


“I need to talk to Erend and Avad!”  


“No one enters the palace, ma’am. We can’t risk it.”  


“You just saw me here with Erend!”  


“I’m sorry. No entry.”  


I ground my teeth and tried to slip past them, but the two nearest soldiers grabbed me by my arms and shoved me backward, causing me to stagger for a few steps before catching my balance at the last second and keeping myself on my feet. With one last glare toward the soldiers, I turned and ran back the way I had already come moments ago.  


When I reached the open area with the fountain, I found the soldiers desperately doing as they had mentioned, grabbing buckets and throwing the water on the fire, but it was clearly doing little to no good. It had already begun to spread to the other nearby buildings. The scent of smoke hung heavily in the air, causing me to launch into a coughing fit that only served to agitate the pain from my injury even more than it already was. By this point, it was beginning to feel like I had been stepped on by a Strider, all over again.  


I kept my head bowed as I suddenly had an idea and tapped my Focus, bringing up the web of purple and blue lines around me. Nothing immediately presented itself as out of the ordinary in this open area, so I began to move along the street to my right, keeping my head down as I tried to bury my mouth and nose in the fur at the top of my tunic, but it didn’t help much. As I passed under a walkway with wooden railings on fire overhead, my Focus suddenly seemed to pick something up and I came to a stop, honing in on where it had indicated. A moment later, I realized that it was telling me about a strange substance on the ground.  


I hurried over to it and crouched down, getting closer to the stone street to see that whatever it was seemed to be bright green in color. As I ran my fingers through it and held it up to my nose, I made a face of disgust and quickly tried to wipe them on the stonework beside where I had found the substance.  


“Blaze…”  


As I glanced down at the ground, once again, I realized that what I had first thought was simply a pool of the green substance on the ground was actually in the shape of a footprint. I followed the direction of the toe and found several more along the street leading back the way I had come.  


“Here we go again…”  


I set the Focus to help me track the steps as the smoke was growing thicker and my eyes were starting to burn. The tracks led away from the fire, thankfully, and through the streets for a ways until I came to a seemingly innocuous building. The front door was left open, so I grabbed my spear from behind me and stepped inside. A quick scan of the room revealed it to be empty, so I glanced at the ground to see that the footsteps now led off to the left and down into what almost looked like a dungeon.  


As I carefully moved down the steps, the wood creaked and groaned, prompting me to swear under my breath and grip my spear tighter. If someone was down here, they could most certainly hear me coming, at this point. With one more deep breath, I hurried down the last few steps, brandishing my spear ahead of me. As I did, I found the basement as empty as the first floor, but the far wall immediately drew my attention, or rather the gaping hole in it.  


“They tunneled through the wall…”  


I hurried forward, slipping my spear behind me, once again, as I braced my hands on either side of the hole and leaned forward slightly, trying to see where it led. A ledge of rock ran along the edge of the mesa to the right, the actual walkway just wide enough for one or two people to pass before leading to a sheer dropoff of hundreds of yards to the farmlands below. I swallowed the lump in my throat before pushing my way through the opening and heading along the trail to my right. As soon as I was clear of the building, I looked up to find the palace in all its shining splendor before me and I immediately knew where the person who had created this hole was going.  


“Avad… Could be the Eclipse, or…”  


“ _That other guy._ ”  


Either way, it wasn’t good.  


I took off as fast as I dared along the rocky trail, my boots sliding and scrabbling across the surface several times and prompting me to spin my arms frantically in an attempt to retain my balance. As I rounded a sharp corner, I found the wooden structure that made up the bottom of the footbridge leading to the palace. It was quite clear how one could easily get from this path along the cliff face to the bridge, and with no one else in sight ahead of me, I had a feeling that I was rather far behind whoever had discovered this before.  


The only way between the end of the path and a rope ladder hung over the edge of the bridge construction was along a series of narrow ledges and wooden beams that seemed to be left over from when the bridge had been constructed.  


“This is going to hurt…”  


With a deep breath, I leapt off the edge of the rocky path and reached toward the nearest ledge. As I caught hold of it, the pain hit my shoulders first, but quickly reached my side, prompting my whole body to ignite in white hot pain so strong that I nearly let go, but I forced myself to keep hold of the rocky surface. The next few seconds as I attempted to pull myself along the ledge until I could swing myself up onto the nearest wooden beam. As I finally dragged myself onto the wider piece of wood, I let out a heavy sigh that devolved into a cry of pain, my vision growing blurry as hot tears began to run freely. I rubbed at my eyes with the back of one hand, keeping the other pressed against the rock wall beside me for balance, before I began to move along the wooden structures, growing ever closer to the rope ladder I had seen before.  


When I finally reached it, I took another deep breath, bracing myself for the pain of dragging myself up it after just barely managing to climb on the ledges a few moments ago.  


“ _It’s not any easier to go back._ ”  


Right. Only forward.  


With one last deep breath, I leapt forward, grabbing hold of a rung about halfway up the ladder and holding on for dear life until I could manage to get a footing on one of the others below me. Once I felt secure, I set about making my way to the top, forcing myself not to glance over my shoulder at just how high up I was, as well. Once I had reached the top, I managed to drag myself over the lip and onto the walkway beneath the main section of the footbridge, immediately rolling onto my back and laying there for a moment or two, staring up at the wooden structure overhead.  


“ _You’re gonna kill yourself doing this, kid._ ”  


I grit my teeth at the thought, forcing myself to roll onto my hands and knees and eventually get into a standing position. Once I was on my feet, I began to job down the walkway until I reached the end of the wooden platform and came to a halt, staring down at a trough of water that led into the palace.  


“It is a secret way in, after all… What did you expect: a door that just said ‘come on in?’”  


With a growl in the back of my throat, I hopped down the short distance into the water and began to make my way into the palace as quickly as I could, despite the knee-high hindrance. As I reached the stone wall that marked the edge of the palace, I heard voices from up ahead and quickly sank into a crouch, dousing the bottom half of my skirt in the cool water. A quick tap to my Focus revealed the shape of two men standing in the room up ahead, each of them loaded down with weapons and armor. I instinctually reached for my bow, but stopped when my other hand found the empty quiver at my hip.  


“ _Right…_ ”  


With a quiet sigh through my nose, I left my bow in place behind me and instead grabbed my spear.  


This was going to be a little more complicated than I had first thought.  


I waited until it seemed the men were turned away from me before stepping over the short ledge into the tunnel beyond, my footsteps echoing about the stone chamber almost immediately. Despite this incredible noise, however, the two men didn’t seem to hear me, so I pressed on, trying to minimize the amount of times I actually removed my feet from the water to avoid splashing. Once I drew within the last ten feet or so, one of the men suddenly began to turn and I panicked. The next thing I knew, I was charging forward, holding my spear firmly with both hands.  


The man who had begun to turn now had trained his full attention on me, and I saw his eyes widen just moments before I drove my spear into his side, around the edge of this armor. A sickening crunch filled the air as the man let out a choked sound. We locked eyes for a moment and my knees nearly went weak at the fear in them, but I quickly forced myself into action, removing the blade from his side and spinning it around before dragging it across his throat.  


The man fell back into the water with a sickening gurgling noise before I turned my attention to the other man just in time for an arrow to slam into the metal component on my shoulder. I let out a cry of pain, but as I glanced over, I didn’t see the arrow lodged into my flesh; instead, it was somewhat stuck in the metal paneling, but otherwise seemed to have stopped before actually hitting me. I glanced back at the other man to see him desperately scrambling for another arrow, but I leapt into motion before he could find one.  


Within a second, my spear had driven clean through his throat, leaving him to a fate similar to his companion as he slowly sank to his knees, clawing at the gaping wound before landing face-first in the water. I stared down at the back of the body for a moment or two before letting out a slow, shuddering breath and wiping the tip of my spear in the water by my feet and sliding it into its holster on my back.  


“I’m sorry… so… so sorry…”  


I carefully crouched down beside the body and removed the arrows from his quiver before they could become truly soaked, shaking them off for a moment or two as I did, before sliding them into my own.  


“I wish there had been another way…”  


With one last deep breath, I trudged through the water to a set of stone steps leading out of the circular room I had found myself in and cautiously entering the next room through the doorway at the top. The narrow passageway was lit by the orange glow of torches, but I didn’t see any signs of other men in armor, so I pressed on toward the spiraling stairs ahead of me. Moments later, I found myself exiting the orange tunnels to a set of stairs that hung from the side of the palace, once again overlooking the farmlands below.  


“Is no one afraid of heights around here?”  


Keeping any other grumblings to myself, I slowly began to make my way up the stairs to my left, these ones seemingly much more ornate and adorned with banisters sporting intricately carved posts, rather than the strictly for-service-only ones I had just used out of the water-filled rooms. As I neared the top of these stairs, I began to hear a strange sound and quickly dropped as low as I could against the stone steps, practically crawling the last few on my hands and knees.  


As I reached the top, I winced against the strange sound, pressing one hand against the ear closest to it as I tried to focus on what was happening on the walkway before me. Several men in heavy armor stood around two others who lay on the ground, seemingly writhing in pain. One of them was clearly Avad, by his ornate and colorful clothing and headdress that now lay on the floor beside him, while the other I couldn’t immediately discern, but he appeared to be of a larger build.  


A man with short-cropped hair and a surprisingly neat beard was crouching over Avad, a twisted smirk on his features. His lips moved, but there was no way I could hear him from this distance, and certainly not with whatever device was making the strange noise.  


“ _They don’t look like Eclipse, though…_ ”  


Could be a disguise.  


“That’s giving them a lot of credit.”  


A smirk tugged at my lips as I glanced off to my right, looking for a way to get behind them and possibly gain the advantage without charging in from the same direction they had used. A narrow walkway led behind some small gardens that lined the back of the king’s seating area, so I stole one last glance toward the men in the center of the atrium before slipping off to the side and ducking as low as I could.  


As I moved along the pathway, the throbbing in my ears from the strange device grew ever more present and unpleasant as I grimaced, attempting to press at least one ear against my shoulder in an attempt to stifle the noise and hitting my head against something hard. I glanced over to find the arrow still lodged in my armor, so I quickly yanked it out, tossing it off the edge of the walkway beside me and letting it tumble the hundreds of yards to the ground below. As I reached the spot I believed to be roughly behind the armored men and Avad, I approached the wall and climbed onto the ledge containing the garden, pressing my back against the warm stone that made up the barrier between me and all of them.  


As I carefully lifted my head to peer over the edge, I saw the man who had been crouching over Avad now dragging him by the collar of his clothing toward the main area where I had seen his throne, previously.  


“Not good, not good…”  


I scanned the rest of the scene, finding the other heavily armored men following after their apparent leader, leaving the others on the ground to remain where they were, still writhing in pain. My eyes finally found what appeared to be inflicting this punishment on them off to the right: a strange device that looked almost like the head of a Longleg mounted on a stationary platform.  


“It’s… sound torture?”  


I glanced back toward the rest of the men to see that they were all now standing with their backs to me, so I quickly pulled my bow from over my shoulders and nocked an arrow from the quiver. I could feel the moisture still in the feathers and frowned slightly. There was a good chance they wouldn’t fly perfectly if they were still so waterlogged.  


" _Why hadn’t I thought of that?_ ”  


With a curse under my breath, I put the bow and arrow away, instead opting to quickly hop off the ledge and make my way along the narrow pathway until I had reached the far side of the king’s seating area. As I made my way along the wall of the main palace structure in the center, I removed my spear from behind me, gripping it tightly with both hands.  


“ _You’ve only got a second or two before whatever this weapon is gets to you like it’s gotten to them._ ”  


Right.  


Gotta make it quick.  


As I reached the last corner, where the sound of the machine weapon had grown so loud that I could actually begin to feel the pain in my ears building, I took a deep breath.  


“ _Now or never._ ”  


The next moment, I had burst into motion, slipping around the edge of the stone building and rushing forward, my spear raised over my head. My eyes locked onto the strange weapon, an odd distortion almost visible in the air before it as I saw its internal mechanisms pumping out sound at such a high volume that I began to worry my own hearing would be damaged even from these few seconds. The next moment, my spear came down on the weapon, cleaving it nearly in half and sending a shower of sparks into the air. I staggered backward, letting go of my spear and leaving it lodged in the weapon.  


The sound had stopped, but a sharp ringing in my ears had taken hold, preventing me from hearing much of anything with any true clarity. After a few seconds of dazed stillness, I shook my head, aggressively rubbing at my ears with my hands before stepping forward and yanking the spear from the machine. Just as I did, two of the heavily armored men came around the corner and froze at the sight of me.  


“What the…?”  


“It’s the machine rider girl!”  


Before either of them could reach for their weapons, I charged forward, spinning around so that the flat side of my spear slammed into the first man’s face and sending him staggering backward. In a continuation of the first motion, I continued to spin around until I was able to sweep my leg out, knocking the other man’s feet from beneath him and sending him tumbling to the ground. As soon as his back hit the hard surface, I spun the spear around and drove the butt end, with the override tool attached to it, into his throat, prompting him to let out a wheezing sound.  


As I turned from the man on the ground, the first one seemed to be recovering from his daze and was reaching for some weapon at his side, so I quickly burst into motion, swiping the tip of my spear at his arm and slicing across one of the narrow sections left exposed by the armor. The man let out a cry of pain before I planted one foot firmly beneath me and raised the other, driving my heel firmly into the center of his chest.  


The impact of my boot against his metal armor resounded through my entire leg as I grit my teeth against the pain, but it knocked the man entirely off-balance, his arms flailing wildly in an attempt to keep him on his feet. A moment later, I delivered the same blow from the butt end of my spear to his throat and he fell backward, wheezing and gasping for air against the door to the main throne room.  


“You!”  


I whirled around to face the voice to find the man who had dragged Avad out of the seating area a moment ago now standing over him on the ground. For a moment I thought he may have already killed the Sun King, but I noticed him slowly beginning to move at his assailant’s feet and breathed a momentary sigh of relief.  


“The Nora girl who can ride machines and sees with a ‘Second Sight,’” the armored man sneered. “You’re quite the impressive tinkerer yourself, it seems.”  


I remained silent, holding my spear at the ready in one hand as I eyed the other two men with their leader, each of them seemingly waiting for the right moment, as well.  


“Too bad you allied yourself with such… filth.”  


He spat on Avad, who barely seemed to register the gesture until the armored man delivered a swift kick to his stomach.  


“I don’t suppose I can convince you to see my side?”  


I simply stared back at him, my jaw set as a smirk pulled at his lips.  


“Thought not. Well…” he turned and gestured to the large plume of smoke now filling the sky behind him, the fire from the edge of Meridian clearly having spread several streets more, by this point, “you’re too late. You know, I’d have thought a Nora, of all people, would be glad to watch Meridian burn, after what this one’s father did to your people.”  


“I’m not what you’d call a ‘typical’ Nora.”  


“Clearly,” he replied, laughing quietly, “but still, I thought you’d be smarter.”  


He gestured to the men on either side of him before pointing at me.  


“I was going to splatter that throne with blood, anyway, but now yours can join Avad’s. Kill her.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Out of the frying pan and into the fire we go. See you next week.


	14. No Fighting in the Throne Room

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Monday.
> 
> This week: the thrilling conclusion to the attack on Meridian.

The two men began to draw closer as I saw their leader heft some kind of heavy weapon from the ground nearby and prime it. Whatever it was, it looked like I didn’t want to get close to him. I gripped my spear even more tightly as I braced myself for the two men drawing closer. One carried a wicked bladed weapon while the other drew a bow and nocked an arrow.  


Great.  


Suddenly, the man with the bladed weapon rushed at me, letting out some kind of loud cry. It caught me slightly off guard, but I quickly recovered and raised my weapon to block his wild swing. The metal of his blade emitted a loud clang as it met my spear, a few sparks even spraying from the contact point. The wooden shaft vibrated painfully in my hands, but I forced myself to maintain a tight grip as I carried through with the motion, spinning around and bringing my spear down with a good amount of force on the man’s back. The impact, alone, sent him tumbling to the ground, while I caught a slight hint of red along the edge of the blade, although I couldn’t tell if it was from him or the previous man whose arm I had hit moments ago.  


As I finished my strike, I felt something fly past my left ear, the motion enough to lift my hair and prompt me to instinctually roll to the side, although the pain that shot through my from the motion immediately made me regret the maneuver. I popped out of the roll into a crouched position, staring up at the other assailant, who was now scrambling for another arrow.  


My window was very narrow.  


So I took it right away.  


I charged forward, letting out a loud cry of my own and seemingly surprising the other man. A moment later, I brought the wooden shaft of my spear down on the side of his neck with a resounding “thwack” and the man staggered to the side. Before I could wind up for another attack, however, a strong force slammed into me from the side and I was thrown off my feet, landing painfully on my left side. A scream of pain escaped my lips as I quickly tried to roll off my injured side, but the damage had already been done.  


I might as well have been trampled by an entire herd of Striders with how painful the impact was. Bright lights began to flash before my eyes as the edges of my vision grew dark, but I forced myself to push past all of it. I rolled to my side and clumsily got to my knees, swinging my spear behind me and reaching for my bow all in one motion. As I pulled the bow free, I nocked an arrow and drew it back to my ear. I could barely focus on the image of the men confronting me, but I aimed at the shape that I thought was the one with the bow and arrow and let loose. A moment later, a long, narrow shaft seemed to sprout from the top of the shape, where a man’s head should be, and the silhouette grew stiff.  


As I watched, the form crumpled and fell to the ground. Before I could truly come to terms with what that meant, the same blast from before slammed into me from the front and I was sent tumbling backwards, my bow flying from my hands as I did. When I had finally stopped rolling, it felt like I had jumped into one of the burning buildings, myself; every inch of me hurt more than it ever had before, and I could barely force my limbs to respond enough to lift me to my hands and knees.  


“I’ll give you one thing,” the leader’s voice called through the haze that surrounded me, “you’re resilient. Too bad I’m in a bit of a hurry. I’ve got a Sun God to kill. Now if you’d kindly just—”  


Before he could finish his phrase, he let out a cry of pain falling to one knee as I noticed an arrow protruding from the back of his shoulder. Confusion came over me for a moment until I looked past him to see a sight that made me wonder if I was truly seeing things. Avad was raised on one knee, holding the bow of the man I had fired an arrow toward a moment ago, his hand still held by his head where I presumed he had just released it moments ago. He seemed to waver in place, but it seemed his aim had been true enough.  


The assailant turned to look over his shoulder at the Sun King and let out a short laugh.  


“What do you know, the Sun King’s got a bit of steel in him, after all.”  


Seeing my opportunity, I clumsily dragged myself to my feet, staggering unsteadily for several feet as I also reached behind me. My hand couldn’t seem to find my spear, however, and I was drawing within feet of the assailant, who had now begun to turn toward me, once again. As soon as he did, I realized that I was going to have to use a different tactic. With a loud cry from deep within my chest, I planted one foot to the side of the man while bringing my opposite knee forward, driving it straight into his face.  


With a loud, sickening crunch, I felt my leg collide with his skull, and I saw his head immediately snap backward. Everything seemed to move in slow motion as he fell onto his back, his weapon falling from his hands and clattering across the stone floor nearby. As he hit the ground, himself, I saw the arrow in his shoulder snap in half, but the tip didn’t come loose.  


I staggered for several steps before falling to my hands and knees, once again, my breaths coming in heavy, wheezing gasps as I pressed one hand to my side. The burning pain returned throughout my body as I lifted my head to look toward Avad to find him regarding me with a look that I could only describe as “awestruck,” although he said nothing. He gave me a small nod and I returned it before forcing myself to my feet and shuffling toward the assailant, who was still squirming on the ground. I removed the spear from behind me as I approached, pressing the blade against his throat.  


“Not so… fast… red,” he managed, his voice strained and somewhat nasal. “Any good Oseram tinker will tell you: always have a third plan.”  


With that, he suddenly pulled something from a pouch at his side and held it toward me. A small, flashing light on the top of the device immediately caught my eye.  


“ _A signal?_ ”  


No… a beacon.  


My eyes widened as a distant screeching reached us and I glanced around, finally settling on something glowing in the sky off to my left. I didn’t have to clearly see the outlines to know what it must be.  


“ _He’s drawing machines in._ ”  


Glinthawks. Have to be. I hope.  


As the familiar calls of the scavenging machines grew closer, a thought suddenly occurred to me and I looked back down at the assailant, a strange smirk pulling at my lips. Confusion creased his face as he stared back up at me.  


“Why do you look happy about this?”  


“Because… you know what does a good job of putting out fire?”  


I suddenly leaned closer to the man, pressing the blade of my spear against his neck a little more firmly as I did.  


“Chillwater.”  


His eyes widened as I nodded slowly.  


“And you know what Glinthawks carry?”  


“You… you can… you tame the machines…”  


“Exactly.”  


With that, I removed the spear from against his neck, but drove my foot down on the shoulder that sported the arrow wound, prompting him to let out a scream of pain, dropping the lure to the stone surface with a clattering sound. As I removed my foot from his shoulder, I swung the spear behind me, once again, and hurried over to my bow that had been thrown from my hands, earlier. As I scooped it off the ground, I heard the strange, bleating call of Glinthawks overhead and spun around, grabbing an arrow from my quiver as I did.  


Two of the mechanical birds were hovering over us, their eyes red as I saw the beginnings of the mist that told they were about to unleash a barrage of chillwater on me. I quickly pulled the bowstring back and took aim at the one on the left. As I released the arrow, I ran forward, hoping to avoid the blast of freezing liquid that had been launched in my direction. The arrow lodged itself firmly into the main body of the Glinthawk I had aimed for, prompting it to squawk angrily, but begin to spiral toward the ground. I quickly slung the bow over my shoulder as I ran toward where the machine seemed to be falling. At the last second, it deviated from its course and crashed into the circular platform down a set of gently-sloping stairs to my left.  


I took the steps two or three at a time as I yanked my spear free, desperately sprinting toward the downed machine as it began to push itself off the ground once again. Before it could fully get itself into a flying position, however, I reached it and jammed the override tool at the butt end of my spear into its neck. Instantly, my Focus came to life, surrounding the machine and me with a half-sphere of blue and purple lights as I saw the familiar blue circles projected around my spear and the white bar slowly filling from one side of its box to the other.  


Just as it fully filled, I suddenly found myself reaching toward the interface with one hand, tapping one of the circles and opening a screen I had never seen before. My fingers danced across the various options as I tried to focus in on what I was doing, but before I knew it, the interface had closed and I pulled my spear away from the machine. It let out a strange squawking noise and looked at me with seeming curiosity.  


“Do you listen to me, now?”  


It made a chirping sound, but didn’t react in any other way.  


“I’ll take that as yes, hopefully…”  


I glanced back to see the other Glinthawk circling around us, its chillwater component beginning to power up, once again.  


“Ignore that one. Spray chillwater on those fires. Got it?”  


The machine repeated the same chirping sound before suddenly hopping backward and beginning to take to the air.  


“It’s actually listening to me…”  


I didn’t have long to celebrate in my victory, however, as the other Glinthawk suddenly decided to forgo its chillwater attack and instead began to dive straight toward me, its powerful claws opening wide to either scrape at me or grab me and haul me over the edge of the mesa.  


“Fuck, fuck, fuck…!”  


I suddenly rolled forward, narrowly missing the outstretched claws before spinning around on one knee, slamming my spear down on the ground before me so that I could pull my bow free. As I took aim at the Glinthawk, I found that my hands were shaking far worse than usual, and it was hard to tell exactly where the tip was pointing. When the machine turned to face me, once again, hovering in place, I let loose the arrow, only for it to sail harmlessly past.  


I swore loudly as I reached for another arrow, but was forced to dive forward, once again, as the machine plummeted toward me. Once I was back on my knees, I turned to find the machine finishing its arc, but saw that it was also now hovering off the edge of the mesa.  


“ _Can’t take the risk of you just falling down to the farmlands below…_ ”  


“Here, little birdy…”  


As it suddenly began to dive toward me, once again, I squeezed one eye shut and drew my bowstring taut. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as I carefully tracked the waver of my arrowhead, waiting until it just about perfectly lined up with the intended target before releasing it. As the arrow flew past my face, I tracked the tip all the way from my bow to the Glinthawk’s chest. The machine let out a distressed squawk before crashing face-first into the stone platform, as its companion had done before. I looked around for my spear, only to realize that I had left it on the ground on the other side of the machine.  


The world still seemed to be moving in slow motion as I leapt to my feet, sprinting toward the downed machine before me. As I reached it, I leapt into the air, instantly hoping that I hadn’t just made one of the dumbest decisions of my life. My foot landed squarely in the center of the Glinthawk’s back, my weight shoving it back into the ground as I pushed off and propelled myself over it, sending me into the air, once again. The next time I landed was on the stone surface of the landing, and I immediately dropped into a slide, much to my body’s screaming disagreement, and swiped the spear from the ground.  


As I spun around to face the Glinthawk, once again, I saw it beginning to rise to its feet, already flapping its wings, so I rushed forward, holding the override tool out before me. Just as the machine began to take its first few tentative flaps into the air, my tool jammed into its back, and it crashed back to the ground, shaking the stone floor beneath me and briefly making me wonder just how strong this whole structure actually was. A moment later, I pulled up the same menu as before and my fingers danced across the displays, bringing the machine into total obedience, before pulling the spear away from it.  


As before, the machine regarded me with seeming curiosity for a moment until I commanded it to help put out the fires. Within moments, the second machine had taken off into the midday sky, flying headlong into the dark cloud of smoke that covered a great deal of Meridian. With a heavy sigh, I tilted my head back, feeling the pain all throughout my body slowly making itself known, once again.  


“ _You’re gonna fall apart, kid._ ”  


Not today. Not now.  


Just then, the same, odd squawking came from overhead and I froze in place. I could vaguely sense a shadow growing larger around me for a moment or two before the full realization of what was about to happen hit me and I quickly attempted to drop to one knee to avoid the incoming Glinthawk, but I felt something grab the back of my tunic and begin to pull me forward. A strangled sound escaped my lips as the collar pressed into my throat, effectively blocking my breathing and leaving me scrambling to swing my spear at the machine now dragging me across the stone landing. Finally, I must have hit something important, as my attacker let out a pained cry and the grasp on my clothing disappeared, leaving me to slam straight into the stone stairs leading up to the throne.  


Pain instantly exploded throughout my body, forcing a scream from my lips as I arched my back, my muscles involuntarily tensing at the sudden sensation. After a few moments, I recovered enough control to get to my hands and knees, the edges of my vision fading slightly with each heavy, wheezing breath. The sounds of several more Glinthawks circling above reached my ears and I had the vague mental image of a group of large, black birds circling an animal carcass in the desert.  


“ _I’m not dead, yet._ ”  


With my jaw clenched tightly, I forced myself to my feet, the wooden staff of my spear held in a death grip at my side. Every inch of me was screaming to stop fighting, that I wouldn’t be able to go on, but the fire in my chest slowly spread throughout my limbs, overriding their complaints and leaving me with a strength that I was wondering if I even possessed before nearly being trampled to death.  


Just then, one of the several Glinthawks that had arrived in the second group let out a bleating sound and dove straight toward me, narrowly missing the top of the large, stone structure above Avad’s throne as it passed. I brought my spear behind me before gripping it with both hands and letting out a loud cry, swinging it up toward where I presumed the machine would pass while simultaneously leaning forward so that I bent below its outstretched talons. The spear shook painfully in my hands, but I kept my grip as I saw a shower of sparks spread across the steps around me, a good amount spilling across my back as I felt the soft stings of several of them on my exposed arms and parts of my shoulders.  


A loud crash came from behind me, prompting me to spin around to find the Glinthawk lying on its back on the landing, its wings feebly flapping on either side of it as it appeared to try to right itself. I ran over to it and quickly jabbed the override tool on the end of my spear into its chest, quickly bringing up the Focus interface and allowing me to bring it under my command, like the two before it. Just as the process was finishing, I heard two more cries from behind me and glanced over my shoulder in time to see two light-blue projectiles emitting a good amount of what appeared to be steam, at first glance, coming straight toward me.  


I removed the spear from the Glinthawk and quickly dove away from it just in time for the chillwater to hit it, immediately turning the outer metal of the downed machine a blue-white color as I heard the telltale cracks of the ice rapidly forming along its body.  


“Close,” I panted, glancing up at the other two Glinthawks that now circled the landing, their blue chest-pieces that housed the freezing liquid clearly exposed and seemingly prepared to fire again. “Get a little closer…”  


They fired off another volley of the freezing projectiles, but didn’t make any motions to move closer, instead remaining just over the edge that led to the incredibly high drop off. I swung my spear behind me, placing it in its holster, once again, before removing the bow from over my shoulders, quickly nocking an arrow to the string and taking aim at a space somewhere between the two flying machines.  


“One of you gonna be the first to get a little closer?” I taunted, smirking slightly.  


Suddenly, a loud cry came from the right and I lowered the bow slightly to look over, only to find the Glinthawk I had just overridden flying straight toward one of its companions. The machines collided in mid-air, although instead of both falling to the farmlands hundreds of feet below, the friendly one seemed to grab hold of the other and turn them both toward me. Confusion came over me for a moment or two before the two machines suddenly slammed into the stone surface, causing the ground to shake beneath me. I stared at the pinned Glinthawk before me for a moment or two in stunned paralysis before I blinked rapidly and ran forward.  


As I started to override the metallic bird, the already-overridden Glinthawk took to the air, leaving me to watch it leave with an incredulous expression.  


“ _Now that is most definitely not something you see every day…_ ”  


Once the new Glinthawk was overridden, I hopped away, pulling my bow free, once again, and looking around for the last machine. After a few moments of searching, I realized that the first Glinthawk now appeared to be chasing the last one, the two machines twisting about the air above the palace as I tried to keep track of which one was which. Finally, I spotted the telltale signs of the glowing blue cables along one of them and focused my aim on the other. As they flew closer to the large, stone arch over the area behind the throne, I pulled the bowstring back, aiming the tip of the arrow just in front of the opening of the arch before letting it loose a moment later.  


I watched in slow motion as the remaining hostile Glinthawk flew through the opening and barreled straight into the incoming arrow, the metal tip of the projectile lodging itself firmly in its neck. The machine let out a frightened squawk as it began to plummet from the sky, flapping its wings feebly to keep it airborne just long enough to pass over the top of the throne and come to a crashing halt on the lower platform at the end of the bridge.  


An involuntary laugh escaped me as I stored the bow and took off running down the lower set of stairs toward the downed machine. Just as I reached it, it was beginning to flap its wings in an attempt to get airborne, but my override tool slammed into its body a moment later and it fell to the ground, falling still as I performed the procedure to bring it fully under my control. Once the bar had filled and the Focus interface had closed, I pulled the spear away and let out a heavy sigh. The machine got to its feet before looking over at me and making the same chirping sound that its companions had before.  


“Fire… put it out,” I panted, gesturing in the direction of the large, dark cloud of smoke that still rose from beyond the edge of the palace.  


The machine made a sound, seemingly in agreement, before taking to the air and joining its friends in flying over the burning buildings, lobbing chillwater projectiles at the flames below. As I began to make my way toward the stairs up to the throne, I could feel the strength that had flooded me minutes ago beginning to drain away, leaving the incredible aches and pains in its wake.  


By the time I was halfway up the final set of stairs to where I had left Avad and the assailants, my vision was growing dim at the edges and my breathing sounded raspy and incredibly uneven. My hand was firmly pressed against my side, where it felt like it had been torn open, yet no blood coated my hand when I pulled it away. The sound of a voice shouting from up ahead reached my ears, but I couldn’t understand what it had said. As I lifted my head to look toward it, my toe caught the edge of one of the last steps and I tumbled forward, half-heartedly throwing my arms out before me. Unsurprisingly, this did nothing to lessen the blow as I slammed into the hard, stone surface with a cry of pain.  


A few seconds later, two pairs of hands gripped my arms and began to haul me to a standing position, but the force of them pulling at me only heightened the pain in my torso more, prompting a groan from between my grit teeth. The voices over me grew more frantic, but the grips didn’t disappear; instead, they seemed to pull me forward more insistently.  


I was vaguely aware of passing under the large archway behind the throne, but the next thing I truly noticed was being lowered gingerly onto one of the couches in the king’s seating area where I had spoken to Avad yesterday. My back came to rest on a soft, cushioned surface, as my head tilted back, finally bringing my helpers into view. One of them was Erend, complete with an intensely worried expression on his face, but the other, to my surprise, was Avad, himself. His ornate headdress was missing, revealing his short, but somewhat messy dark hair, complete with several long strands plastered to his forehead by sweat.  


He looked a lot smaller without his crown.  


More normal.  


“ _He should look like that more often._ ”  


A laugh escaped my lips before the pain shot through me, once again, and a low groan quickly followed it.  


“Easy, easy,” Avad said, leaning forward and gently placing a hand on my left shoulder while Erend leaned over me from the right.  


“Aloy, hold still. Are you okay? Are you injured?”  


“I’ve… _been_ … injured… Erend,” I managed through clenched teeth, pressing my hand firmly against my side, once again.  


“I-I know, but… more?”  


“Erend, get Janna this instant,” Avad interrupted, placing his other hand on the other man’s shoulder and turning him so that his gaze was torn away from me, finally.  


The Captain nodded and spared one last glance down at me before running off in the direction I vaguely remembered arriving from yesterday after leaving the room with the healer.  


“I am… incredibly impressed,” Avad said, turning back to me, “and forever grateful.”  


With a heavy sigh, the Sun King removed his hand from my shoulder and ran it back through his hair, pushing the unruly locks aside. He slowly took a seat on the couch beside me, staring across the open area toward the destroyed weapon that his assailant had used to immobilize him and his entire guard for a few moments before turning his attention back toward me.  


“To say you have my gratitude feels woefully insufficient. You saved my life, and what you were able to do with those Glinthawks…”  


“Meridian is still on fire,” I managed, groaning as I attempted to pull myself into more of a normal seated position.  


“I understand, however we now have a fighting chance…”  


“Who is he?”  


Avad looked confused for a moment before I managed to take my hand from my side and gestured vaguely toward the door to the throne.  


“The man who… tried to kill you.”  


Avad nodded, seemingly finally realizing whom I was referring to.  


“That… was Dervahl.”  


“The one… one you…?”  


“The one who we believe captured Ersa, yes.”  


I groaned as my side protested at sitting at a normal angle on the couch, forcing me to slide lower in my seat so that the cushion behind me supported my back.  


“Erend will be here soon with Janna,” Avad said softly, trying to offer a small smile, but it did little to hide the pained expression in his eyes.  


“I’m not… dead… Avad.”  


He glanced up to catch my smirk and began to laugh softly.  


“You have a spirit stronger than any I have ever met, Aloy.”  


“Yeah, that’s me,” I shot back, laughing painfully, “got all kinds of spirit to spare.”  


Avad laughed softly, as well, nodding slowly  


“Also, because of you, we have an even greater chance of finding Ersa.”  


Something dark flashed across his eyes for a moment, but it was gone just as quickly as the sound of jingling metal came from the distance and he turned away from me toward it. I glanced in the same direction and found Erend appeared at the top of a set of stairs, the healer from the other day directly behind him and holding some kind of basket full of various jars and cloths.  


“Here she is,” Erend said, gesturing to me as he stepped aside to allow the healer through.  


Janna scanned me with her eyes for a moment before placing the basket on the ground near my feet and moving closer. Avad rose from his spot on the couch to allow her to kneel on it, her hands quickly seeking out the bandages across my abdomen.  


“Somehow none of them are torn,” she remarked, looking up at my face with a somewhat impressed expression. “However, that doesn’t mean everything is all fine.”  


“Tell me about it,” I wheezed. “It feels like I’m on fire, too.”  


She glanced over her shoulder at the large plume of smoke before turning back to me with a grimace on her features.  


“I would ask if the pain is worse, but I think that tells me everything I need to know.”  


She reached down toward her basket for a moment before hesitating and regarding me with a contemplative look.  


“Are you able to walk?”  


“Barely.”  


“I don’t think I can simply put some new bandages on and everything will be fine, unfortunately,” she said. “We will need to get you back to the infirmary.”  


“I can’t… can’t be asleep… for three days… again…”  


“We will see if we need to use sedative,” she said gently and then looked to the men nearby. “Captain, can you assist me in bringing her down to the infirmary?”  


He nodded and began to step forward as Avad began to turn toward the other guards standing in wait.  


“While he does that, see to Dervahl, make sure he is—”  


“Dervahl? He’s not dead?”  


Avad jumped at the sudden, booming tone of Erend’s voice before clearing his throat and attempting to regain his composure.  


“Erend, I understand your resentment, but we need—”  


“If he’s still alive, then I’m having a talk with him, right now.”  


Erend suddenly stormed past Avad and the guards as the king tried to stop him, but to no avail. The guards looked confused as they glanced between Erend and Avad, unsure who to stay with, it seemed.  


“We need to make sure Dervahl is alive,” Avad snapped, gesturing toward the fuming Captain behind them.  


The guards understood and took off after Erend, but he had already reached the heavily-injured man on the ground and was lifting him up by the straps of his armor.  


“Where is Ersa? What have you done with her?”  


His voice was loud enough that it clearly carried across the distance between him and me, each word laced with an amount of anger and hate that I had not previously heard from him.  


The would-be assailant made some sneering response, his tone nasally, but I couldn’t make out the exact words.  


“Fire and spit answer me or I will see that vengeance is dealt hard and fast right here!”  


Erend shook the man, his head nearly colliding with the ground in the process, as the two guards that had gone after him stood feet away, seemingly unsure whether they should jump in, just yet. Dervahl suddenly leaned forward and said something so quietly that I couldn’t even hear his voice. Erend’s face went white for a moment before it flooded with red, his fists tightening around Dervahl’s armor before he suddenly let out a scream of rage and threw the man onto the ground with a good amount of force. As he raised his foot to bring it down on Dervahl’s head, the two guards finally rushed forward and tackled their Captain, dragging him away from the nearly-unconscious man on the ground as he fought against them, trying desperately to rip his arms free from their grasp.  


“Fire and spit, if she’s dead, then you will be, too!”  


I noticed Avad go rigid at Erend’s exclamation and even Janna seemed frozen for a moment before stepping toward her king and gently laying a hand on his shoulder. He jumped in surprise as his head whipped around toward her, but after making eye contact for several moments his shoulders slumped, the tension leaving him almost as quickly as it had come.  


“Do you need assistance?” he asked, glancing back toward me, finally.  


“She needs more care than I can provide right here,” Janna said softly. “She needs to rest…”  


“No, you’re… you’re not…!”  


They both looked back in surprise at my sudden outburst, Janna looking even more distressed as I attempted to drag myself to my feet, but my muscles didn’t want to cooperate correctly, so I wavered unsteadily where I stood, but I still managed to jab a finger toward them.  


“I am _not_ losing… more… more days… to sleep!”  


“Aloy, your injuries are serious…”  


“I don’t have time to lose. The world doesn’t have the time to lose…”  


“What are you talking about?”  


“Can’t… can’t stop… let… HADES…”  


The world was suddenly spinning around me as I tried to brace my feet more securely to hold me in place, but it didn’t seem to help. For a moment, bright lights streaked the spinning world, much brighter than torchlight and a very different color than sunlight. Bright blues and purples and reds colored the whirling vortex before everything suddenly came to a sudden halt, leaving me in a dark room that I didn’t recognize. A desk sat before me, its surface made of a dark wood and the legs of some kind of metal that shone slightly from a dark, golden light somewhere behind me. As I scanned the scene with my eyes, motion at the desk brought my attention back to it. A figure was rising from a chair on the far side; somehow I had missed him before.  


“Lis…?”  


The voice was immediately recognizable and sent shivers down my spine, but the next minute I was confronted with the image of Avad and Janna, once again, both of them bearing expressions somewhere between concern and confusion.  


“Aloy?”  


“Has to… has to be another… way…”  


Suddenly, I felt my knees give out as the edges of my vision grew dark and I staggered to the side, tripping over the couch and falling face-first toward the pillow at the end of it. Right as I expected to feel the soft fabric hit my face, everything seemed to fall away, leaving me in a dark void.  


“ _No, not again…_ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry to keep using the "fade to black"/"fall unconscious" transitions, but that would seem rather likely for someone who keeps putting stress on her injuries. They'll be less frequent coming up.
> 
> Let me know how y'all are feeling so far in the comments! I always love hearing everyone's thoughts and try to reply to them as best I can.
> 
> Get ready for some trippy shit next week.


	15. The Two of Me in My Own Head

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Today is sort of an important day, other than it being Monday.
> 
> This more or less marks the one year anniversary since I first posted _Duality_ and kick-started this whole thing. (Technically that was on March 27th, but as that doesn't exactly line up and I like to keep a schedule, consider this like the birthday party not on the actual day of your birthday.)
> 
> It's crazy to think that's actually how much time has passed.
> 
> To everyone who's been toughing it out and sticking around since then, thank you. If you've found your way to my little corner of the internet since then, just as many thanks. Hopefully you all will stick around into the future for this storyline. I've got some big things planned, and I hope you will enjoy them.
> 
> The contents of this chapter feel oddly fitting for the whole "anniversary" thing, so I guess that works out. I'll let you find out why. Also, I think I'm going to update some of the tags to this story to reflect it, as well. Feel free to let me know if you feel anything with them or the rating should change beyond what I've already done, though. I'm never quite sure exactly where the "line" is for those sort of things.

Almost immediately, the darkness began to lift, however, and I found myself standing in the middle of the same darkened room as before, the faint golden light shining from behind me and reflecting off the metal legs of the desk. This time, I whirled in place, taking in the rest of the space, and also partially to see if there actually was more to the room than the single desk. The golden light that I had noticed seemed to come from a free-standing light off to the left, a cloth shade covering the actual light source and muting it slightly so that it gave off the softer glow that I had seen reflecting on the desk. Next to the light were two black chairs that looked rather cushy, although the fabric that covered their surfaces seemed shiny and smooth, rather than soft like the couches at the palace in Meridian. Books lined numerous shelves on the wall behind the light, while some smaller plants stood in pots along a large window that stretched along the wall to my right. I approached it slowly and placed my hand on the glass, feeling the cool surface beneath my finger tips and shivering at how real it felt.  


My eyes first took in the sweeping expanse of lights and motion just beyond the window, an entire city stretching out into the distance. Something felt vaguely familiar about the shapes of the tall, metal structures, but I couldn’t place exactly why this was the case. As my gaze moved from the city that shouldn’t exist, I noticed the sleeve of whatever article of clothing I was now wearing. It appeared to be a soft, green material that hung somewhat loosely off my wrist, the end of it sliding up my forearm slowly as it remained at an angle.  


“Lis…?”  


The voice caused me to freeze, shivers running down my spine as I stared blankly at the back of my hand for a moment or two longer before slowly turning to the right to find the same figure as before rising from behind the desk on the other side of the room.  


“Is everything okay?”  


Ted looked concerned as he seemed to debate whether he should move from behind the desk, but seemed to settle for remaining where he was as I stepped away from the glass, letting my hand fall by my side as I felt my fingers curling into a fist.  


“Is everything okay?” I repeated quietly, beginning to move toward him.  


“Uh… that’s… that’s what I asked.”  


I was halfway across the room by now, my feet seemingly bringing me closer of their own accord.  


“No, it’s not, Ted.”  


“Are you feeling sick? Maybe it was that sushi…”  


“It wasn’t anything I ate.”  


“Well—uh—you seemed fine earlier, so… have you been coming down with something?”  


I was now standing at the front of the desk, only a foot or two away from Ted as he swallowed nervously, unintentionally leaning away from me slightly.  


“No, but there is something I should stop before it spreads.”  


“What the hell are you talking about, Lis?”  


Suddenly, my hand shot out, grabbing a pen in the center of the desk and gripping it tightly before leaning forward, swinging my arm toward him. A moment later, my arm was brought to an abrupt halt as the tip of the pen slammed into Ted’s neck, the point piercing roughly the side of his windpipe. His eyes widened as he stared back at me, his hands reaching up toward mine in a feeble attempt to remove it, but my grip was too strong. Finally, I released the pen and watched as Ted struggled to take hold of the foreign object in his neck, finally managing to yank it free. As he did, a rivulet of blood began to pour from the opening, small spurts spraying out each time he took a panicked breath.  


“What… what… why?” he managed, his voice almost more of a gurgle than actual words.  


As he staggered back another step or two, he tripped over his chair and fell to the ground, letting out a panicked gasp as he attempted to press one hand to the wound, as if it would help stem the flow. My jaw remained clenched as I looked down at him, vaguely aware of the warm feeling on the side of my hand, where some of his blood had undoubtedly smeared from the attack.  


“There, I fixed it.”  


The sad sounds of Ted trying to breathe continued for several long moments before he began coughing, vermilion blood spraying from between his lips as I could hear the sound of blood filling his throat. He tried to say something else, but the words were unable to get past the fluid and his eyes widened as he grabbed at his throat with both hands. Just as he began to fall back onto the floor, I heard a voice behind me and whirled around to face it.  


“Lis…?”  


Despite turning completely on the spot, I now found myself standing several feet away from the desk where I had stabbed Ted moments ago, an uninjured version of him just rising from his seat behind it. I turned around, once again, but only found the light and the two chairs.  


“What the hell…?”  


“Is everything okay?”  


“No, you… I just…”  


“Are you feeling sick? Maybe it was that sushi…”  


“No, no, no…”  


“Well, you seemed fine earlier… Have you been coming down with something?”  


I ran my hands back through my hair, noting how it no longer seemed to be tied into anything resembling a braid, and it only seemed to come down to my shoulders.  


“You were dead a second ago!”  


Ted recoiled, slowly moving an extra step or two away from his desk.  


“Uh, Lis, what the hell do you mean by that?”  


I suddenly ran forward, swiping the pen off the desk as Ted retreated, nearly tripping over his chair before running into the large window behind him. His chest was heaving as I moved around his desk, gripping the pen tightly at my side.  


“Lis, just… I don’t know what’s gotten into you, but… let’s just calm down…”  


“Maybe it’ll work this time…”  


“Lis, what—?”  


Suddenly, I rushed forward, raising my arm and pinning Ted against the glass as he tried to push me off, but to no avail. I brought my hand with the pen up before slamming the tip into his neck, once again. This time, however, I immediately yanked it out before repeating the motion three more times. With each one, Ted’s fighting grew weaker and weaker, until I finally released him from under my arm and he slid to the floor, holding his neck as blood streamed from the multiple stab wounds.  


“Lis?”  


I sighed, closing my eyes. The voice could only mean one thing.  


When I opened my eyes, once again, I was standing across from the desk, Ted rising from his seat, once again.  


“Is everything okay?”  


Of course neither of the past two times had happened in actuality. I had been here before, in this room, in this moment. It seemed that I wouldn’t be able to change that.  


“Yeah, just… tired all of the sudden.”  


Ted nodded slowly, shoving his hands in his pockets.  


“Happens when you’re injured, you know.”  


The hair on the back of my neck instantly stood up as I froze in place, my eyes immediately locking with Ted’s as a smile began to form on his face.  


“What’s the matter, mini-Lis?”  


A sharp pain appeared in my side and I glanced down at myself to see that I was suddenly dressed in a strange tunic made of fur, leather, and metal parts while bandages wrapped around my stomach were clearly visible from the openings in the side.  


“You thought I didn’t know?”  


Suddenly, with a cry of rage, I grabbed the bow slung across my back and removed an arrow from the quiver at my side in one smooth motion, holding them before me as I yanked the string back. As soon as the arrow flew from between my fingertips, I found myself standing in the center of the room, once again, Ted just rising from his seat.  


“Lis…?”  


“What?”  


He recoiled slightly at the sudden bite in my voice.  


“Just… something seemed off. Is everything okay?”  


“No… not really.”  


“What’s the matter? I thought you loved that sushi place…”  


“It’s not about the sushi, Ted.”  


“Oh… uh… then what is it about?”  


“What? No snarky quips this time?”  


“This time? What do you mean by that?”  


I laughed dryly, stalking toward his desk and bringing my hands down on top of it with more force than I had intended.  


“Nothing to say about…”  


Suddenly, I realized that wherever the thought in my sentence had been going, it was now gone. He had made some comment before that had prompted me to try to kill him, again, but… what exactly had set me off about it?  


“About…?”  


I shook my head, hanging it forward slightly as I squeezed my eyes shut tightly.  


What had he said?  


“You uh… got a haircut?”  


My head snapped back up to look at him as he recoiled slightly, but quickly tried to act casual a moment later.  


“I didn’t, actually.”  


“Oh, uh…”  


“Nevermind.”  


I waved my hand dismissively, beginning to pace back and forth in front of the desk.  


“Okay… so… can we resume our conversation?”  


“What conversation, Ted?”  


“You know… we were just—”  


“You mean the brown-nose fest you’ve put on all night to try to convince me to come back to FAS?”  


His mouth hung open for several long moments before he sighed, rubbing his eyes with one hand.  


“Lis, we’ve known each other—how long—five, seven… nine years?”  


I gave him an admonishing look and he swallowed somewhat nervously.  


“A while,” he finally concluded. “We’ve done some _amazing_ work together, driven the profits of this company through the roof—”  


“Not to mention all of the life-saving technology _I_ developed to help save the planet _for_ you.”  


His expression soured slightly, but he tried to mostly keep his composure.  


“Yes, you were the best project lead this company has had.”  


“And I’ll be the one to try to clean up your messes, too,” I sighed, turning on my heel to begin pacing in the opposite direction, “you don’t need to keep telling me things I already know.”  


His face contorted in confusion for a moment as I sighed.  


“Right… that hasn’t happened yet…”  


I held up one of my hands before me, extending my fingers before curling them into a fist.  


“How long is it before… ten years?”  


“Before what?”  


I looked over at him as I smiled coyly.  


“Oh, nothing. Do you have anything else to stroke my ego with?”  


He sighed, falling back into his chair at his desk as I stopped pacing but remained standing before him with my arms folded over my chest.  


“Lis, I’d like to think we were friends, once—”  


“ _Once_ , Ted,” I snapped, “and while we’re at it, I’ve let the first-name-basis slide for now. As soon as we’re done here, it’s still Doctor Sobeck, to you.”  


His jaw worked stiffly for a moment before he cleared his throat.  


“I know we’ve… disagreed…”  


“That’s putting it lightly…”  


“Will you stop interrupting?!”  


I jumped slightly as he slammed his fist down on his desk, prompting the pen from the first several tries at this conversation to roll across it, coming to rest against the back of his knuckles.  


“The world has changed, Lis, and you and I both know that. FAS had to change, too, or we’d get left behind. I’m sorry that you didn’t agree with the new direction, but I at least wanted to try to resolve this without teams of lawyers in the room.”  


“You mean you’re not recording this entire conversation?”  


“There might be a ‘gap’ in the security footage.”  


“Good, then let me speak freely.”  


With that, I slammed my hands down on the front of his desk, leaning in toward him until our faces were only a foot or two apart.  


“You started this company as a great programmer and a brilliant ‘ideas man,’ but you’ve fucked up. You’ve fucked up so big that you don’t even know just how badly you have, yet. Your behavior and your business decisions encapsulate everything that is wrong with humanity, but you won’t listen while anyone tries to tell you that as soon as you stopped trying to save people and started trying to find ways to blow them up, then there’s no going back. You’ve let so many of the best things you’ve ever had slip away, and you’ve become incredibly rich in the meantime. Congratulations. Sleep in your vault of gold coins. Nothing you say or do, will _ever_ change any of this, or get me to help you on this path.”  


By the end of my tirade, Ted’s face had struggled to find a resting place at either somewhat scared or angry, but had continuously switched between the two. Finally, he swallowed, and positioned his hands so they rested against the edge of his desk.  


“I’m sorry to hear that you feel that way, Lis…”  


“No, you’re not, but… I think it’s time to have this conversation again.”  


“What—?”  


Before he could finish his statement, I had grabbed the pen off the desk and lunged forward. The tip penetrated his chin, just behind the jaw bone, prompting his head to snap back from the force of the impact. He tried to open his mouth to let out a cry of pain, or perhaps say something else, but I suddenly grabbed the back of his head with my other hand and used it as leverage to jam the pen farther into the wound, until it suddenly slid several inches before coming to a sudden, short stop. His eyes widened as he seemed unable to open his jaw, but emitted noises as if he were trying to scream.  


Finally, I let go of the pen and watched him try to grab at it for a moment or two before I suddenly brought his head down toward the desk, chin first. A moment later, just when I expected to hear a loud, wooden bang fill the room, I found myself facing the desk from several feet away, an uninjured Ted slowly rising from his seat behind it.  


“Lis…? Is everything okay…?”  


I let out a heavy, shuddering sigh that seemed to turn into something like a cry of frustration halfway through as I ran my hands over my face, pressing the heels of them into my eyes. Ted didn’t say anything else, however, as I turned to my left and began to walk forward, not caring to look where I was going, until I finally pulled my hands away and came to a halt only inches from the large, glass windows. The brightly-lit city still stretched out before me, the motion almost dizzying to watch as vehicles flew along the streets.  


Something in the back of my mind seemed to say this was wrong, but I couldn’t place why.  


The sound of footsteps approaching came from my right, but I didn’t look over, my eyes remaining fixed on the world below. They came to a stop next to me and I heard the sound of someone letting out a soft sigh… no, it wasn’t a sigh. I slowly turned my gaze from the window until the figure beside me came into view. The first thing I noticed was the bright red hair, however the rest of the outfit seemed out of place, not just because it wasn’t Ted’s, but in comparison to the rest of the room.  


“This… this is what the cities were like?”  


My eyes remained slightly widened as I found myself unable to form words. How was this happening? What was happening, exactly? Finally, the redhead turned to look over at me, her eyes still somewhat wide, but the expression didn’t leave her face.  


“Elisabet…”  


I swallowed forcefully as the image of the Nora huntress began to reach toward me tentatively, her fingers visibly shaking. My limbs seemed unable to respond as she moved closer, her hand finally coming to rest on my arm. The touch was incredibly real, and sent an immediate shiver running down my spine.  


“How… how is this happening?” she asked, mirroring my thoughts. “How are… how are we here… but…”  


“How are you suddenly there and I’m here?”  


She nodded slowly as I tried desperately to get my heart rate under control.  


“I don’t know…” I finally managed, but my voice was barely louder than a squeak.  


Aloy clenched her fingers around the sleeve of my sweater for a moment, rubbing the fabric between them, before quickly letting go and pulling her hand away.  


“You… you’re not… _her_ …”  


“Who do you mean?”  


“The… _you_ who…”  


“Oh… _her_.”  


Aloy nodded slowly as I shook my head.  


“Pretty sure I’m not.”  


She let out a shaky sigh as she ran her hands over her face in an almost identical fashion as I had done moments ago, turning and pacing several steps away, as well, before spinning on her heel and approaching me, once again.  


“Where is this place?”  


“Well, what you’re seeing is the second office of Ted Faro,” I began, glancing around the room to find no signs of said man. “The one before the fancy penthouse you found at FAS.”  


I glanced over at her to see the look of confusion and corrected myself.  


“Sorry, Maker’s End.”  


She nodded slowly in response.  


“As for _when_ , this—as you may know—is when he and I had a conversation where he tried to get me to come back to work for him after I stormed out when he started making killing machines.”  


“The beginning of the Swarm…”  


“Exactly. They weren’t that smart, yet, but I’d say this was about ten years before shit really started to hit the fan.”  


Her eyebrows raised slightly for a moment before she groaned and closed her eyes, rubbing her temples with both hands.  


“How do I suddenly know what that means?”  


“I… can’t tell you…”  


She finally opened her eyes, once again, sighing deeply before bracing her hands on her hips.  


“What does all this mean, then?”  


I tried to say something, but the only thing that came out was a somewhat choked sound that turned into a sigh of exasperation as I threw my arms up in defeat.  


“I’m as lost as you are. We’re both kind of along for the same ride, here.”  


“But, that whole time—with Ted dying over and over—it was like I was watching it happen, except for when the whole thing with him knowing my name… happened…”  


My eyes widened slightly as I began to shake my head.  


“Oh no…”  


“What?”  


“Don’t tell me…”  


“What?”  


Her lips had pulled into a slight frown as she began to tap her fingers impatiently.  


“It’s… I don’t know. I just don’t fucking know!”  


I rubbed at my eyes hard enough that I saw bright shapes form before them for a moment before I opened them, once again, and slammed a closed fist against the glass window behind me. The sound reverberated throughout the room, and I could feel the slight pain in my hand from where it had made contact, but the glass didn’t crack or break, as part of me expected. A moment later, I felt something touch my shoulder and I whipped my head around toward it, only to find Aloy pulling her hand away apprehensively.  


“Like you said… we’re both along for this ride, together.”  


I sighed, laughing softly before leaning forward and placing my forehead against the cool glass.  


“Two passengers trying to fly the damn plane…”  


“What was that?”  


“Nothing,” I sighed, focusing on the faint reflection I could just make out in the surface before me and shivering as I caught sight of Aloy’s off to the side, as well. “We really do look a lot alike.”  


The huntress squirmed slightly but nodded.  


“I, uh, I was kind of wondering…”  


I pulled away from the glass and turned toward her, raising my eyebrows slightly as I folded my arms over my chest.  


“How… old are you… were you… uh… at this point?”  


“You mean when this original conversation with Ted happened?”  


She nodded in response.  


“Jeez, don’t you know it’s not polite to ask a woman her age?”  


Aloy looked confused as I laughed and waved dismissively.  


“Old joke.”  


With a sigh, I pulled my lips to one side, refolding my arms and tapping the fingers of my left hand on top of my right elbow slowly.  


“I don’t know… mid-thirties? Like… thirty five or so?”  


Aloy nodded slowly, her gaze sweeping over me for a moment before I cleared my throat, bringing her attention back up to my face.  


“I’ve actually been wanting to know: how old are you, exactly?”  


Her face screwed up slightly, whether in thought or discomfort, though, I couldn’t tell.  


“You could say… about nineteen years old, I suppose.”  


“Nineteen?!” I spluttered, causing her to recoil in surprise for a moment as I tried to regain my composure, finally shaking my head as I laughed softly. “Holy shit…”  


“I mean… is that surprising?”  


“I kinda thought you were like twenty-five, to be honest,” I quipped, grinning. “I guess maybe that goes some way to answering the question of nature versus nurture…”  


“What?”  


“Nevermind.”  


With a sigh, I began to pace away from the windows, moving vaguely in the direction of the leather chairs by the single floor lamp on the opposite side of the office. A few moments later, I reached them and spun on my heel before lazily falling into one. I had to admit, it was pretty comfortable.  


“Damn you, Ted…”  


As I glanced across the room, I found Aloy still staring out at the bright lights of the city below, seemingly transfixed by them.  


“You never got to see a real city, did you?”  


She jumped slightly at the sound of my voice, glancing over her shoulder once she had regained her composure.  


“When we—y’know…”  


She shook her head, her lips pulling into a thin line.  


“They were really something to see,” I continued, nodding slowly, “even more something to experience. Too bad I’m pretty sure we can’t leave this room.”  


Something almost like disappointment passed over her face for a moment before she tried to hide it, clearing her throat.  


“Did you live here?”  


“In Salt Lake City? Naw. Well, I mean, for a brief period, when I worked for Ted. At this time, though, no.”  


“You lived in another city like this, then?”  


“Not when I could avoid it.”  


She looked confused as I laughed softly.  


“I was never entirely a city girl, but working with computers and robotics was mainly something done in them, so I had to make do.”  


Aloy nodded slowly, staring blankly at the floor to her left for a moment before she finally spoke, her voice soft enough that I almost couldn’t hear her.  


“That field… the house…”  


I swallowed painfully as images of what she was referring to flashed before me: the bench before the old ranch house, waking up to the smell of bacon on my first day back from Carnegie-Mellon…  


“That was your home?”  


I blinked and the images were gone, leaving me to realize I had been staring directly at Aloy the entire time.  


“Where I grew up, at least.”  


She didn’t say anything, but cast one last look out at the city lights before moving toward me and taking a seat in the other chair slowly. Once she had sunk into the leather, she paused, running her hands over the smooth arms before grinning slightly.  


“This is more comfortable than I thought it would be.”  


I grinned, a lighter feeling appearing in my chest for the first time since I had “appeared” in this office.  


“I suppose the leather seats people make in your time are a little different than these.”  


“This is leather?”  


She seemed surprised, running her fingers over the dark green covering before letting out a soft “huh.”  


“Maybe the Carja would have something like this, but…”  


“Not the Nora?”  


“Definitely not,” she shook her head, a smirk forming on her lips. “They’re afraid of comfort.”  


I laughed as she looked up from the arm of the chair toward me, the smirk finally turning into a full-on grin.  


“I thought you picked that up, too.”  


“I know how to make do… but I’m not going to say no to a nice bed every now and then.”  


“Exactly!”  


We both laughed as I ran my hands through my hair, absentmindedly noting that it seemed longer than I remembered. I guess I hadn’t quite started cutting it that short, yet.  


“So… what now?”  


I turned my attention back to her as her smile began to fade somewhat, her fingers tapping on the arms of the chair.  


“I don’t know that, either.”  


“I… I remember fighting Dervahl… and then…”  


“You collapsed.”  


Her lips pulled into a thin line, once again, as her fingers tightened their grip on the arm of the chair.  


“So this is… all inside my head? Or…”  


“I don’t think you’re dying, if that’s what you were about to say,” I cut in.  


She seemed unable to meet my gaze, but nodded slowly.  


“Broken ribs plus running around like a chicken with her head cut off and laying the beat down on several men and machines is not a great combination for good health, though.”  


Her eyes widened slightly as her head snapped toward me.  


“How do you…?”  


“It’s like what you said about the conversations with Ted.”  


She remained silent for several long moments before finally speaking at a volume barely above a whisper.  


“Not alone…”  


My lips pulled into a thin line as her eyes began to widen even more.  


“T-that’s… that’s what you…?”  


“Yes, no, maybe… I don’t know.”  


“But—”  


“I can’t explain it, Aloy, but… I know that much.”  


“A loss for words? That’s new.”  


We both jumped at the new voice, Aloy nearly falling out of her chair as she spun around to look behind her. My hands clenched tightly around the arms of my chair as I took in the sight of Ted standing beside his desk, hands shoved in his pockets.  


“Holy shit, it is like a goddamn reflection.”  


“You…”  


Aloy went to jump to her feet, but I leaned forward and grabbed her arm, stopping her. She looked back at me with surprise that quickly turned into anger as she tried to shake my grip.  


“Aloy, stop!” I hissed.  


“Why?”  


“You know it’s no use.”  


She glared at me for several moments before finally huffing and resigning to remain seated, but turning her attention back to the image of Ted.  


“Listen to Momma Lis there, kid,” he quipped, smirking.  


She shot each of us a dirty look, but seemed to resign herself to remaining in the seat. Ted chuckled softly before beginning to move around the desk, taking a seat on the front so that he faced us.  


“So… the attempt at diplomacy with the good ol’ king there is going swimmingly, I see.”  


“She saved his life, so I’d say that’s kind of a big deal,” I shot back.  


“True, but if the man he was looking to hunt down because he kidnapped his ‘special someone’ just showed up and tried to burn down the entire city, then what do you think that means for her?”  


I ground my teeth as Aloy’s face paled.  


“She’s dead…”  


“Good chance, kid,” he said, pointing at her emphatically, “and you know whose fault it is that she was never found?”  


My blood ran cold as Ted turned his shit-eating grin to me, clearly relishing in the reveal. He didn’t say anything, however, but Aloy slowly turned to look back at me, confusion creasing her face.  


“Elisabet? How?” she suddenly whirled around toward Ted, once again. “What do you mean?”  


“You don’t remember, do you?”  


Aloy shook her head, a flush appearing on her cheeks as I could practically feel her blood boiling from a foot or two away.  


“Tell me what you’re getting at. Now.”  


Ted’s eyes were still locked on mine as he placed his hands back in his pockets.  


“You remember the man, the one with the— _eccentric_ —hair styles—”  


“Erend.”  


“Yeah, him,” Ted waved dismissively, “remember when he asked you to help find out what happened at the site where his sister was supposedly killed?”  


Aloy nodded slowly.  


“But before I could actually do that, Elisabet and I had one of those ‘visions’…”  


“Well, remember what happened when you came to?”  


Her eyes glazes over in concentration as I shook my head, glaring back up at Ted.  


“Cut the shit, you don’t need to torment her—”  


“Don’t try to cover up your guilt this time, Lis,” he snapped, his expression instantly shifting as he glared over at me. “You need to live up to your actions, for once.”  


“For once?!”  


I leapt to my feet, breaking Aloy out of her concentration and prompting her to glance quickly between Ted and me.  


“I’m not the one who deleted all of human fucking history because I felt _guilty_ that I had committed a mistake.”  


“It wasn’t all about me, Lis, I said—”  


“You claimed it was poison, blah blah blah, I know, but you said it too little too late, after I was already dead and gone, so I couldn’t fight back.”  


Actually admitting that out loud brought a strange tightness to my chest, but I swallowed at the lump in my throat and tried to maintain my glare and aggressive stance.  


“Because you refused to see reason.”  


“No, Ted, you did, when I told you—”  


“No one could have predicted that robots we had already designed were suddenly going to backfire and destroy the world!”  


“Okay, both of you, stop!”  


Aloy suddenly jumped between us, holding her hands out to either side, but it only seemed to fan the fire in my veins more.  


“You know just as well as I do what he did, so why the hell are you just letting him say this bullshit?!” I gestured around her, but she more emphatically pushed the heel of her hand into my sternum, shoving me back a step or two.  


“Ersa is dead because Lis abandoned your friend and his request for help to find her own answers!”  


Aloy suddenly froze, eyes widening before she slowly turned to look over at Ted, who had risen from his seat on the desk and was standing with fists balled at his sides.  


“W-what do you mean?”  


“Exactly what I said!” he snapped. “He asked for help, but Lis bailed to find out more about her precious Zero Dawn project and allow herself to gloat about what a great future she had created.”  


Aloy slowly turned back toward me, once again, her expression still incredulous as my jaw remained clenched, my eyes flicking between hers and Ted’s while I waited for whatever she would inevitably say.  


“Elisabet… is… is that… is that what you did?”  


Ted’s lips were twisting into a smug grin behind the girl’s head as I swallowed at the lump that had returned in my throat. The muscles in my jaw took some convincing to get moving, but finally I was able to take a deep breath, turning my eyes back to the all-too familiar hazel that waited expectantly.  


“It was that or go after Olin. I felt I needed the answers he supposedly had, but I didn’t know the huge chain of events it was going to set off…”  


All of the color had left Aloy’s face and her arms began to sag until they hung limply at her sides. The fire in my blood had been extinguished at the look of disbelief on her face, but I nearly collapsed, myself, when she fell back into the chair behind her, placing her head in her hands.  


“Aww, look, you’ve hurt the poor girl’s feelings,” Ted mocked, adopting a sing-song tone.  


“You need to shut the fuck up.”  


I suddenly stepped past the young huntress, now that she was no longer blocking my path, and grabbed Ted by his shirt. He seemed to jump slightly at first, but tried to squirm away as I dragged him sideways toward the large wall of windows.  


“Lis, you can’t be—”  


Before he could finish his statement, I suddenly threw him ahead of me, sending him crashing head-first into the glass. A spiderweb of cracks spread from the point of impact as I heard him let out a loud grunt before I released my grip on him and he fell to the ground. I vaguely noted the red trail that ran from the center of the impact on the glass to the floor, where Ted was trying to collect himself. Before he could get his hands and feet beneath him, however, I delivered a kick to his stomach, prompting him to curl into the fetal position, groaning.  


“Elisabet!”  


I delivered another kick to his stomach, although this time my foot connected with his hands that were wrapped protectively over it.  


“Elisabet, stop!”  


My foot began to raise into the air, my eyes locked on Ted’s head as his eyes turned to meet mine, widening slightly as they saw the sole of my shoe prepared to come crashing down on his face.  


Before I could deliver the final blow, however, a strong pair of arms wrapped around me from behind and I was yanked backward. I struggled against them, but everything seemed to blur into a whirlwind of colors, sounds, and lights as my immediate, frantic motions took over. A voice still called my name in my ear, but I couldn’t focus on it; I had to finish what I had started, then… Well, what then, actually?  


“ _What would that accomplish?_ ”  


I’d feel better, for sure.  


My name, again, this time louder, rang in my ears. I shook my head, trying to throw the grip around my torso off, but it seemed to no avail. Suddenly, something pressed down on my shoulders and I found myself unable to fight back. Something firm and solid was behind my back, effectively serving to pin me in place. I blinked rapidly, trying to clear the kaleidoscope that filled my vision, and thankfully the shapes and colors began to settle into place. With one final blink, it all snapped into focus.  


But it was all wrong.  


There weren’t two leather armchairs across from a set of large windows with the lights of the city below shining onto the ceiling while a single lamp illuminated the bookshelf on the far wall. There was a wall, I thought, but it seemed to be all brown with no books on it, and it stretched as far as my vision could make out in each direction. A face was staring back into mine, but there was no red and hazel in or near it. There was some orange, though. Its lips moved and I heard my name in my ears, again, but… something about it seemed wrong.  


Was it a different language?  


No, I could understand it, but…  


“Breathe, Aloy, breathe… relax…”  


Something was wrong.  


This wasn’t right.  


Right?  


“ _Right?_ ”


	16. Internal Struggle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Monday. I promise this isn't an April Fool's joke.

“There we go, nice and slow. You’re okay, you’re okay…”  


More blinking didn’t bring back the office or its other two occupants, but eventually a second face appeared before me.  


“You… you weren’t…”  


“Be careful, you don’t want to make your injuries worse.”  


Worse? Injuries? I wasn’t hurt. I hurt someone else.  


“You seem disoriented. Do you know where you are?”  


I groaned, shaking my head as I closed my eyes for a long moment.  


“Salt Lake City…”  


When I opened them again, the two faces were looking at each other, confusion and worry evident on both of them.  


“Uh… not quite.”  


“What do you mean? I was just—”  


I shook my head again, bringing a new bout of pain that shot from my right temple and across my forehead.  


“I was just…”  


“Did she hit her head?”  


“No signs of obvious bruises anywhere on her face, and I didn’t feel any lumps under her hair.”  


“I didn’t hit my head,” I snapped, clenching my jaw as I stared back at the two figures more intensely. “Where am I? Why can’t I move?”  


“Well, to answer the second one, you were suddenly thrashing about and we were afraid you were going to fall out of the bed. As for the first, I want you to think back and try to tell me yourself.”  


“I already fucking told you, and you said it was wrong!”  


They both recoiled at my sudden outburst, the man looking much more distressed while the woman frowned.  


“If I’m wrong, can you just tell me and stop being all coy about it?”  


“Meridian, Aloy.”  


My face screwed up in confusion for a moment before I rolled my head to the side. If something felt off before, it was all but confirmed when I took in the rough, stone room and the bright sunlight pouring in through open, wrought iron windows at the far end. There were no signs of any electronics anywhere: no screens, no heart monitor, no canned music in the background, no calls coming over the overhead speakers in a hospital…  


Suddenly, everything came crashing back at once.  


The fight at the palace. The fire in the city. The broken ribs.  


“ _Wait…_ ”  


Oh no.  


“ _How…?_ ”  


No, no, no…  


“Is it coming back to you, now?”  


My head whipped around toward the two people over me as I swallowed quickly, coughing as some of the saliva caught in my throat.  


“Uh, y-yeah—yeah…”  


“What is his name?”  


The woman gestured to the Mohawk-sporting man with the biker mustache on my left. After a moment, I found that his name was quite easily at the tip of my tongue. How did I forget it before?  


“Erend.”  


“And do you know mine?”  


“Janna.”  


She nodded as Erend sighed, removing his hands from my shoulders and running one over his face.  


“You scared us for a second, there,” he remarked, laughing.  


“Sorry, just… weird dream, y’know?”  


He nodded as Janna turned to a table beside her, collecting several things on its surface into a basket.  


“Are you in any pain?”  


I shifted slightly, feeling aches and pains shooting across my stomach and up my back, but nothing that seemed unbearable. At least nothing that I would tell her about, right then.  


“None more than usual.”  


Erend laughed quietly as I smirked, but Janna didn’t seem quite as amused.  


“Stubborn as ever, still. Well, you’ve been out overnight, so I’d recommend not trying to get up just yet, but…”  


“We both know what I’d say?”  


She sighed, nodding. The smirk remained on my face as I gingerly began to sit up, feeling more stabs of pain with each movement, but I simply set my jaw and tried to push past them. I quickly glanced down, lifting the sheet over me to see that I was still fully clothed, before throwing them aside. The purple, silky shirt seemed to have the bottom left open, almost like some kind of crop top, though, leaving my bruised stomach and side clearly visible.  


“Need a hand getting up?”  


With a frown, I began to push myself to my feet, ignoring Erend’s offered hand. I staggered for a second, falling back onto the bed, but a moment later I had pushed myself into a standing position. He looked somewhat impressed before I wavered in place and quickly reached out to place one hand on his shoulder. The unsteadiness passed a moment later and I let out a sigh, cautiously pulling my hand away and taking a few test steps. By the time I had crossed to the open windows, I felt much more confident on my feet.  


“Well, a true miracle.”  


I glanced over my shoulder at Janna, who was shaking her head.  


“I don’t know how you can get back on your feet so quickly after being knocked off them.”  


“Just that old Sobeck resilience, I guess.”  


Both of them looked confused as I felt my pulse rising in my ears.  


“That a—uh—childhood nickname?”  


“Y-yeah,” I answered quickly. “Something like that…”  


He exchanged glances with the doctor as I swallowed nervously and turned back to the windows, staring out at the sprawling vista below. The view simultaneously felt new and exhilarating, but also like I had seen it hundreds of times before. I had spent the past day or two here, after all. That made sense. Should make sense. Didn’t feel like it, though.  


An image of a city at night flashed before me, the lights reflecting off rain drops on floor-to-ceiling windows, but it disappeared as quickly as it had come.  


Salt Lake…  


Did only one of us leave that room?  


That shouldn’t be how this works.  


Whatever _this_ is.  


“Whenever you’re feeling ready, the Sun King would like to speak with you… again.”  


I tore my eyes away from the expanse of green and brown below me to face Erend, once again. He quickly tried to hide his look of worry, but it didn’t go entirely unnoticed.  


“Okay, let’s go.”  


“N-now?!”  


I shrugged.  


“I’m on my feet. Seems good enough for me.”  


He glanced over at Janna, who only shrugged, as well.  


“I’ve already seen that what I say has no effect on her.”  


Finally, he looked back over at me, swallowing nervously.  


“Okay, let’s go.”

 

I couldn’t remember a time I had felt as relieved as I did when I fell onto the bed in the apartment I had been given for the time being. Every muscle from my neck down seemed to be complaining, the soreness in my back and legs throbbing especially, but I knew that if I rolled onto my stomach it would only be worse. This time, thankfully, Erend had left me at the front door, saying that he had something important to do, but would check back just after nightfall. Based on how bright it was outside, I figured that gave me a good amount of time to myself.  


“ _Or myselves._ ”  


A short laugh escaped me as I rubbed at my eyes. The physical fatigue was staggering, but my mind was wide awake.  


“ _Nothing new._ ”  


With a heavy sigh, I finally rolled onto my feet, forsaking the invitation of the bed to head toward the stairs. Once I reached the ground floor, I eyed the still-broken front doors for a moment before turning back to the main room. The kitchen sat on the far side, a bowl of food still sitting out on the main counter and immediately drawing my attention. As I approached, I glanced inside to find the fruits and vegetables, along with some small pieces of bread, that Erend had brought the day before.  


One nearly-jaw-breaking bite later and I placed the bread on the counter beside the bowl, grimacing as I swallowed what little I had managed to tear off. The fruit proved to be less painful, so I began to peel an orange, placing the discarded pieces in a pile on the stone countertop. My feet began to idly lead me in a figure-eight pattern around the main room of the apartment as I made my way through each piece of the orange. Once it was done, and I had licked as much of the stray juice off my fingers as I could, my eyes fell on a door next to the staircase and I paused for a moment.  


My curiosity proved too great and I made my over to it, tugging on the handle. Inside turned out to be a washroom, complete with something like a sink and a mirror. I threw the door open wide and stepped inside, approaching the reflection cautiously.  


The eyes staring back at me were framed by dark circles that only seemed more prominent compared to the pale skin surrounding them. My hair was somewhat of a wild mess, but I had managed to wrangle it into a single, long braid before talking to the king, however I could see that a good amount of it had broken free in the meantime. The dark blues and purples that colored my stomach were hidden by the shirt that I had managed to draw closed and tie off as I had remembered Janna doing before, but even glancing in the general vicinity seemed to elicit a stab of pain and discomfort.  


My hand absentmindedly rubbed over my left side as my gaze returned to meet my eyes.  


“It’s like you’re expecting something else, still…”  


A groan forced its way out of me as a throbbing pain pressed at my temples and I leaned forward against the small, dresser-like piece of furniture that held the clay basin below the mirror.  


“This shouldn’t be happening…”  


My head continued to slowly shake as I stared down into the center of the bowl.  


“Why is this happening? This isn’t what it was like before. I… I can remember, I feel…”  


A lump had appeared in my throat, stopping the rest of my sentence, but I quickly forced it down, taking a slow, deep breath.  


“I feel like… me… mostly…”  


“And who exactly are you?”  


I whirled around at the sound of another voice, but who I found behind me only heightened my pulse further. The purple-hued image of Sylens stood with his arms folded over his chest, the faintest hints of a smirk pulling at the corners of his lips.  


“I have to admit, it’s been exceedingly more difficult to discern who is speaking, Elisabet.”  


“I knew removing the block on your Focus was a mistake.”  


“But in that instance, you would not have the coordinates to the Eclipse camp, now, would you?”  


“We’ve yet to prove that they’re correct,” I shot back.  


“We are allied against a mutual enemy. Whether or not that makes us truly ‘allies’ is debatable, but we are seeking a similar goal. Or rather, Aloy and I are.”  


My mouth went dry as my fingers fidgeted with the fringes of my pants at my sides.  


“You and I, Elisabet, have something else to talk about.”  


I shook my head, taking a deep breath in through my nose.  


“What makes you so sure you’re talking to her?”  


“You may have been able to fool me once or twice before, but I have learned the signs to successfully determine that I am correct.”  


“ _Pretentious, much?_ ”  


“What if I told you—?”  


“I have no interest in playing games, Elisabet,” he snapped, his face quickly contorting into a scowl.  


“What is your interest, then?”  


“Primarily the same thing the two of you have been seeking this entire time: the information held within the ruins Project Zero Dawn.”  


I remained silent, staring back at the semi-transparent image of Sylens, the same bemused expression returning to his face. My tongue ran over the back of my teeth forcefully as I tried to control my outward reaction.  


“Aloy’s musings have been quite useful in determining that there appear to have been secondary copies made of the GAIA AI and its subfunctions.”  


“ _Her,_ ” I almost corrected, but held my tongue at the last second.  


“However, the entrance is locked to everyone on this planet… except for one.”  


“Me, right?”  


“It requires the genetic identity of one of the original Alpha team members, and seeing as there is only one living person who meets such criteria…”  


“And what if I just lock you out, again?”  


He paused, a momentary flash of something that could have been surprise crossing his eyes before it was gone, replaced with the familiar scowl, once again.  


“If either of you are going to destroy the Eclipse network—”  


“You already sent me the directions, right? That means I could just go there myself, shut them down, and make my way to the old facility… all without you tagging along. Unless you want to get your hands dirty, for once.”  


Sylens’ eyes narrowed as he actually took a step forward, despite it not providing as much of an imposing gesture due to the holographic image clipping through part of the doorway.  


“I have not shied away from such work, before.”  


“I’ll believe it when I see it.”  


With that, I tapped the Focus, ending the call. Within moments, I had brought up the main menu, once again, and navigated through several sub-menus until I found the same restriction settings from before. It was as simple as hitting a button to re-engage the blocking protocol. With a smirk, I closed the interface.  


“Two can play at this game, Sylens.”

 

The sound of a loud knocking jolted me awake, my head whipping back and forth for a moment or two before I realized that I was still alone in the bedroom of the apartment. Wincing, I placed a hand on my left side and turned so my feet were on the floor beside the bed. The knocking game again and I rolled my eyes, slowly getting to my feet.  


“Okay, okay…” I grumbled under my breath as I managed to stand up straight, one hand now firmly pressed into my side.  


The pain subsided somewhat as I made my way down the stairs and to the front door. I could clearly see who was waiting outside through the larger-than-normal crack between the precariously balanced doors, and waved as Erend caught sight of me, as well.  


“You can, uh, come in.”  


He gingerly pushed the door open, resting it against the wall, before stepping inside the apartment, itself.  


“Did I wake you?”  


I shrugged.  


“Is it obvious?”  


He laughed nervously as I ran one hand back through my hair, noting how the left side seemed flatter to my head than the right.  


“Well, I said I’d be back, so… here I am.”  


“Ta-dah!”  


He looked confused as I laughed, waving dismissively.  


“Never mind.”  


His confusion didn’t seem abated, but he cleared his throat and continued with the real reason he had come back.  


“Marad is holding a council with Avad and some of the Vanguard about going after Ersa. They both asked if you could attend.”  


I swallowed the hard lump that had appeared in my throat, but nodded.  


“Great, well—uh—it’s right now.”  


“Oh.”  


I gestured back up the stairs as I began to back away.  


“One second.”  


He nodded in response, beginning to pace about the entryway as I made my way upstairs as quickly as I could. Once there, I let out a heavy sigh, running my hands through my hair more forcefully.  


“ _Time to decide. Sylens’ coordinates or the search party for a dead woman._ ”  


My teeth ground quietly as I grabbed my boots from the floor in front of the chair where I had piled my armor and the cloak.  


“ _You don’t know she’s dead._ ”  


Yeah, but if Dervahl came to attack Meridian, already, he clearly wasn’t holding her for ransom.  


“ _Only one way to find out…_ ”  


With a heavy sigh, I finished securing the boots and rose to my feet, rolling my shoulders stiffly.  


“Our Lady of Moral Obligation…”  


The walk to the palace passed in almost total silence between Erend and me. It was only once we reached the end of the long bridge from the city street that he seemed to think of something, but the mere sound of his voice caused me to jump.  


“Have you eaten?”  


“I—uh—had a bit of the food from yesterday that you brought.”  


“Oh—okay—good, good…”  


The silence returned for the remainder of the trip, leaving our footsteps on the stone steps the only sound as we ascended. Once we had arrived at the throne, we found it empty, but echoing voices and flickering lights from our right drew my attention. Avad sat on one of the plush couches beside Marad, the two men seemingly deep in conversation, while several men dressed similarly to Erend stood nearby looking somewhat impatient. At the sound of our approach, everyone turned to look at us and I found myself shrinking under their gaze slightly.  


“Aloy, I’m glad you could join us,” the Sun King called, rising to his feet and extending a hand toward the couch adjacent to his.  


I nodded in response, following his gesture and taking a seat gingerly while Erend flopped down on the couch with a heavy thud.  


“Once again, I cannot extend enough gratitude to you for not only saving my life, but the lives of countless citizens here in Meridian, and I also apologize for rousing you from bed,” Avad began, taking a seat, once again.  


“ _God, is it really that noticeable?_ ”  


“Since this morning,” he continued, “Marad has been able to gain more complete evidence regarding Dervahl’s camp.”  


The soft-spoken man began to launch into a lengthy explanation of the information he had gleaned from interrogating the men captured from the fight the day before, as well as what the second spy he had sent to Pitchcliff told him, but I was barely paying attention. The entire time, I knew what the conversation would come to, and I was desperately trying to come up with an answer.  


“ _Help Erend now when I failed before, or chase down a way to save the world… again._ ”  


That wasn’t stressful, at all.  


Suddenly, I realized that everyone was looking at me, while Marad had fallen silent, and I cleared my throat, blinking rapidly.  


“Sorry,” I muttered. “Uh… can you please repeat what you said?”  


Avad looked concerned while Marad appeared somewhat annoyed, but obliged.  


“Are you feeling able and willing to assist in tracking down Dervahl’s camp and aiding in the search for Ersa?”  


My tongue felt like it had swollen to the entire size of my mouth, prompting me to swallow several times before I could even think about speaking, once again.  


“I understand if you feel you are not able,” Avad cut in quickly, as I was beginning to open my mouth. “You have done more than any one person should be asked—”  


“I’ll go.”  


All three men recoiled slightly at the intensity of my tone, so I took a moment to collect myself before continuing.  


“I’ll go. I owe Erend and… everyone that much.”  


I didn’t want to look over at him, but I was able to detect a slight shift in his position beside me.  


“Thank you, Aloy,” Avad said softly, nodding.  


“We plan to leave at midnight,” Marad explained.  


“So soon?”  


“We feel the situation is dire enough that we do not want to allow any more time to pass with inaction.”  


I nodded, finally glancing over toward Erend, but his face was an unreadable mask.  


“Gather what you may need, and we will set out from the main bridge, by the merchants camped out at the far end.”  


“I’ll need some arrows and other ammunition,” I said quickly, looking back over at Marad.  


“I’m sure the Vanguard should be able to provide?”  


“I can get you what you need,” Erend replied. “We’ll visit the armory on our way to the meeting point.”  


There wasn’t much else to discuss about the plan, as it was rather straightforward: go to Pitchcliff, and visit Dervahl’s camp nearby. Avad dismissed Marad, the Vanguard, and me with well wishes for our journey, and I followed the armored men back out of the palace. Erend and I stopped by the apartment, first, for me to throw on my actual armor and grab my weapons and travelling gear, before he led the rest of the way to the armory.  


The cramped, stone space was stiflingly hot and humid as soon as I stepped inside, most likely due to the blacksmiths’ forges on one end of the massive room. New swords, bows, and hammers much like the one Erend often carried lined racks nearby, all of them seeming rather hefty, yet lacking the flair and personality of a weapon crafted by the soldier’s or hunter’s own hands.  


“Take what you need, and grab me when you’re ready to head out,” Erend said, gesturing to an area off to the right that seemed to house every kind of arrow, bomb, and other form of ammunition known to man.  


It took me all of a minute or two to collect enough arrows of varying types and small handheld bombs for my sling to feel confident that I was well-armed, but not overburdened. One last check to all of my various pouches and quivers later, I came to a stop in front of Erend, placing my hands on my hips.  


“Ready when you are.”  


He nodded curtly and turned to leave without another word. A frown tugged at my lips as I watched him for a moment before following. I had expected him to be more eager and nervous about setting out for Dervahl’s camp, but instead he seemed to have become much more reserved and somewhat irritable.  


The group we met at the merchant encampment just outside Meridian was smaller than I expected, but I supposed that it didn’t necessarily require a full war party. At least, I hoped it didn’t.  


“Okay everyone, it’s almost a full day’s march to Pitchcliff, so let’s not waste any more time. Fall in!” Erend barked, waving for everyone to follow and leading the way along one of the worn trails away from the city.  


The clanging armor from the soldiers quickly became grating and I found myself walking faster, despite the pain in my side, to distance myself from the sound. There would be no stealthy approach with this group, it seemed. Hesitantly, I fell in step beside Erend, who had also set a rather quick pace that placed him ahead of the group. He glanced over when he sensed my presence, and at first I thought he was going to give me more of the silent treatment, but the sound of his throat clearing surprised me more than I wanted to admit.  


“Little slower than your usual travel, huh, Aloy?”  


I shrugged.  


“I didn’t always have the machines to get around.”  


He nodded, still staring straight ahead.  


“Do you think we’ll be able to make it in one straight shot?” I asked, scanning the wide open expanse of desert ahead of us as we crested the first hill out of Meridian.  


“We’ll have to stop a few times, but I don’t plan on setting up a camp at any point, if that’s what you’re asking.”  


“Close enough.”  


He made a grunting sound in acknowledgment as I took in a deep breath, releasing it slowly through my nose. We continued in silence for a short while before he cleared his throat and took a deep breath.  


“Listen, I—I wanted to say thank you.”  


I glanced over at Erend, once again, raising my eyebrows slightly.  


“What for?”  


“For coming.”  


“But I—”  


“I know I… wasn’t the happiest when… you first came back. That was childish of me.”  


“No, it wasn’t, it made—”  


“But I just wanted you to know that… it means a lot to me that you’re here… now.”  


My mouth hung open for several moments in silence before I forced it closed and nodded. He wasn’t looking at me, though, so I hurried to offer a response out loud, as well.  


“Y-yeah, sure thing.”  


He glanced over at me, again, and chuckled softly.  


“Now that we got that out of the way early…”  


We both laughed louder, which prompted a nearby herd of Grazers to look up from their patch of grass, but their eyes remained blue and they quickly went back to whatever it was they were doing.  


True to Erend’s word, the march to Pitchcliff continued largely uninterrupted, save for a few brief breaks for everyone to rest their feet and refill their canteens at rivers. As the day began to wind down into the evening, and the sun sank closer to the horizon, the scenery shifted from the sand and dust of the desert to the grasslands and slopes of the mountains. With this, the temperature also began to fall. Just as the sun sank below the mountaintops, and the last remnants of light were the pink and golden lights reflecting off the clouds, the torchlights of Pitchcliff came into view.  


There was a general grumbling from the soldiers that seemed to indicate relief at finally having made it, but I had a feeling that Erend didn’t want to simply stop here for the night and set out in the morning. The pain in my side and back, however, told me that maybe I would have to argue with him on that, as well.  


After we wound our way up the short path to the front gates of Pitchcliff, a man in blacksmith’s clothes approached Erend and nodded curtly.  


“You’re Marad’s agent?”  


“Yes, the second,” he nodded.  


“I’m sorry to hear about the first.”  


The man shrugged.  


“We know it’s dangerous work.”  


He glanced over at me uneasily and I found myself glaring back at him.  


“She was asked to join by the Sun King, himself,” Erend interjected. “Don’t worry.”  


“It’s not that I don’t trust her, but someone so recognizable draws a lot of attention.”  


“For fuck’s sake, I can handle myself, all right?”  


Both men recoiled at my outburst, but Erend was the first to recover.  


“Yeah, like she said, don’t worry.”  


He cleared his throat, glancing back at the troupe of soldiers milling about the entrance to the small settlement.  


“How far is the camp from here?”  


“Not very. About an hour’s walk to the Northeast or less.”  


“We could make it now, arrive under darkness…” Erend said, tapping his fingers impatiently on the side of his leg.  


“What good would that do if everyone is exhausted, though?” I pointed out. “If we show up and there’s still anyone there to put up a fight, or any traps of any kind, your men aren’t going to be ready to deal with any of that well.”  


Erend glared at me, now, but I held his gaze until he finally sighed.  


“Fine, we rest here for a few hours. We move before dawn, though. I still want the element of surprise.”  


“You may have lost it before you even arrived,” the spy warned. “News of Dervahl’s attack on Meridian and subsequent capture have already spread this far.”  


“By fire and…” Erend sighed, throwing his hands into the air as he paced a step or two away. “Talk spreads faster than people can walk, it seems.”  


“Such is the way of the world.”  


“ _Don’t you know it…_ ”  


The men all seemed rather relieved when Erend informed them that we would be stopping for a few hours before moving on, most of them taking the cue to seek out somewhere to sit down and perhaps take a nap. One or two asked about places to find drinks, and Erend promptly slapped them upside the head, reminding them that they were on a search and rescue mission, not sightseeing. I followed Erend and several of the other men to the head of the settlement’s building, where he had graciously allowed us to rest for the time being.  


Most of the men found spots along the walls to set their gear down and try to get some amount of sleep, but Erend simply sat against a wall and stared up at the ceiling. I slowly took a seat beside him, grimacing at the pain in my side, but it quickly passed as I used the wall to brace against my back.  


“We’re so close, but…”  


“So far?”  


He laughed dryly, looking over at me.  


“Yeah, basically.”  


I nodded, turning over my spear in my hands before me slowly.  


“I know, but—”  


“You already made your point. You don’t have to remind me.”  


He laughed again and I forced a smile, but it felt more like a grimace. After that, our conversation fell into much lighter topics, with Erend largely recounting stories of his time in this region when he was a boy. Many of said stories involved Ersa, and I couldn’t help feeling a pang of guilt each time he uttered her name.  


Finally, after he seemed to have exhausted his supply of amusing stories from his youth, he yawned and stretched his arms over his head.  


“I should probably get some of that rest you mentioned, too,” he sighed. “You going to try, as well?”  


“Yeah… maybe it’ll help take my mind off my feet and my side.”  


He nodded, but only offered one last “see you in a few hours,” and turned to lie down against the wall, as well. Once he had begun snoring, I glanced around the room to find that the rest of his men had also taken advantage of the same opportunity. I chewed the inside of my cheek for a moment or two before gripping my spear before me tightly and using it to help pull myself to my feet.  


The settlement was still lit by torchlight as I stepped outside, but the sounds of the residents going about their work was almost entirely gone. Several men sat outside one of the buildings, all wearing thick, black aprons made of leather and drinking from a rather large, brown bottle. I tried my best to skirt around them, but one seemed to notice me slinking past and called out.  


“Oi, flame ‘air!”  


I glanced over, but only slowed my pace.  


“Where ya think ya goin’ this time ‘a night?”  


“A midnight stroll.”  


The man looked confused and I simply smirked as I turned to continue on my way, but evidently he wasn’t done.  


“’Ay, ‘ay, ‘ay, wait a minnit!”  


I sighed, coming to a stop and whirling on my heel to face them, once again, immediately placing my hands on my hips.  


“S’not safe out ‘ere at night, y’know.”  


“I’ll take my chances.”  


“Why dun’ you jus’ have some ‘a this here scrappersap, ins’ead?”  


My face scrunched up at the mere thought of having more alcohol and I shook my head.  


“I’m good.”  


“C’mon!”  


The man tried to stand up, holding the bottle out to me, but almost instantly tripped and tumbled forward, the glass container landing in the dirt and whatever liquid was inside pouring out onto the ground. The rest of the entourage began to laugh, and I took my opportunity to quickly slip away, disappearing through the front gate of the settlement before any of them could turn their attention from their incredibly red-faced companion.  


As soon as I was standing outside the reach of the torchlights, I let out a heavy sigh, pausing to tilt my head back toward the starry sky overhead. The night was mostly clear, although several clouds sat near the peaks ahead of me, blocking the view of the stars. They didn’t seem to threaten any sort of rain or snow, so I took one last deep breath in through my nose before activating my Focus.  


The familiar yellow marker appeared to my right, with an arrow indicating that whatever it was tracking was beyond my field of view, and I frowned slightly.  


“ _Soon._ ”  


I ignored the marker, and instead activated the compass function, using it to orient myself toward the Northeast before staring past the web of lines and numbers into the darkness of the hilly terrain, beyond.  


“So is it guilt motivating you, or are you actually just that determined to stick to the ‘lone wolf’ schtick?”  


I jumped at the sound of the voice, quickly spinning to my right, but as I took in the figure that approached, my shoulders sagged and my jaw clenched. Ted, dressed in old hiking clothes, smirked as she came to a stop in front of me, placing his hands in his jacket’s pockets.  


I didn’t want to dignify the image with a response, so I simply sighed and reached up to close the Focus interface. Just before I did, I noticed how he didn’t show any markings or indications that the Focus had scanned him, as it did with others.  


“Would it make you feel better if I was more real?”  


“Probably not.”  


The image offered a smirk in response as I finally closed the interface and turned back in the direction I had determined was Northeast, setting out across the grassy terrain.  


“You know,” he continued, falling in step beside me, “you could have probably just done this yourself, without dragging ten soldiers across the desert and into the mountains, if you were just going to abandon them, anyway.”  


“I guess it was an ‘in the moment’ thing.”  


“Classic.”  


He fell silent for several blissful minutes before I glanced up from my footing on a rocky slope to see him leaning against a rather large boulder up ahead.  


“So, what’s the plan, Stan?”  


I glared at him and continued past, which only seemed to amuse him further, as he appeared laughing as he idly skipped rocks into the nearby stream several yards ahead. Almost immediately, however, I caught sight of another figure with him, balancing on a rock in the middle of said stream.  


“I mean, I know we’ve always been the ‘strong silent type’…”  


At first I thought it was an image of myself, but as I took a second glance over her, I realized that her clothes were incredibly out of time with the world around her. My jaw immediately clenched as I drew closer, my fingers curling tightly into fists at my sides, as well.  


“Let’s get this straight,” I suddenly snapped, stopping before the two of them and jabbing a finger angrily in the young redhead’s direction, “ _we_ are not the same.”  


“Au contraire,” she shot back, “we’re more alike than you think.”  


“You’re not even like the real me!”  


I suddenly fell silent, my eyes widening as my aggressive stance began to falter, my hand slowly falling back by my side. The two images exchanged glances as Ted’s eyebrows raised and the young Elisabet grinned wider than ever as she finally hopped off the rock and onto the shore, bringing her within a foot or two of me.  


“Am I, now?”  


She drew even closer until her face seemed to be mere inches away.  


“Am I not like you,” she repeated, once again, “ _Elisabet?_ ”


	17. Blood Eagle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh boy, welcome to Monday, y'all.
> 
> This week's got quite a bit in it.
> 
> First off: it's really gonna push the Teen rating today, so prepare yourself for that. I could update it later if I decide that it's actually bumped into a new realm.
> 
> Secondly: this week's chapter title is a music reference (specifically to [this song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzznL_8DIUM) ) so feel free to check that out while you read for the "full experience." However, in addition to this, there are some other music-related things this week.
> 
> With _Duality_ some of you may know/remember that I created a "soundtrack" of sorts that I felt fit alongside the story as a whole, and I've got another one for _Binary_. If you feel so inclined, you can check that out [here](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVPK6kbRVHouHREgOORLOz66P_zAeAi6n).
> 
> Additionally, late last week I posted an original song I wrote based on Horizon:Zero Dawn (and more specifically, the character of Aloy) and I'd love it if any of you would check it out! The song is called [Huntress](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18354308) and you can read the lyrics at that link, too.
> 
> Anyhoo, that's a lot, and this is a long chapter, so let's get on with it, shall we?

“ _How? How can she be here if…? But I…? I’m…_ ”  


“Search your feelings,” she intoned, leaning away as she waved her hands about my head, her grin showing no signs of faltering. “You know it to be true.”  


The sound of Ted nearly cackling beside me only seemed to make my head spin faster, so I began to shake it side to side and moved to step around the image of the young woman, but she simply slipped in front of me, beginning to walk backward.  


“You’re confused, I get it. It’s a big thing.”  


“It’s not something I need to think about right now.”  


“You can’t just keep ignoring it forever.”  


“Watch me.”  


The sound of a mechanical whirring from nearby caused me to freeze, my head whipping toward the sound. A lone Watcher was staring back at me, its blue eye suddenly switching to yellow as I muttered a curse under my breath. Within seconds, an arrow had sprouted from its eye, sparks showering the grass below it as the machine tumbled to the side with a heavy thud and lay still. With a sigh, I lowered the bow, rubbing my eyes with my right hand.  


“Stay focused… stay focused…”  


The terrible twosome were thankfully gone, so I stowed my bow, once again, and used my Focus to reacquaint myself with the direction I needed to go. The trek to where the camp was supposedly located saw several more small groups of machines, including several pairs of Sawtooths that I gave quite a large berth. The mere thought of having to fight one of them sent pain shooting through my side.  


After I had been hiking for what must have been close to an hour, I spotted lights in the distance and quickly lowered myself into a semi-crouched stance alongside the rock wall beside the stream. A quick scan with my Focus showed no other people or machines nearby, so I moved slowly along the path toward them. The lights grew brighter against the dark, rocky walls of a narrow ravine, but they didn’t appear to be moving.  


As I reached the edge of a rocky outcropping and came to a stop behind it, I squinted at the small, bright shapes and finally realized that they appeared to be marking the entrance to a narrow trail down the right hand side of the ravine.  


“Looks a lot like a front door to me…”  


I scanned the area, once again, with my Focus, but only confirmed that I was alone. With a deep, somewhat painful breath in, I made my way across the stream and to the torches jammed into the ground. As soon as I passed between them, I noticed that even more continued along the trail, outlining the edge that dropped off into the frigid water below.  


“Seems like the way to go.”  


I removed the bow from over my shoulders and nocked an arrow to the string before moving cautiously along the trail. Every small, skittering rock or echoing footfall caused me to swivel my head around, imagining more men in Oseram armor appearing from over the top of the ravine, almost like they had at the old satellite relay station.  


I came to a stop suddenly, staring blankly at the ground several feet ahead of me.  


“ _The old what?_ ”  


The sound of a loud, mechanical roar from up ahead broke me from my daze and I quickly rushed forward, dropping into a crouch against a large rock that marked a turn in the path. Several seconds passed, but no angry machines came over the top of it, or rounded the bend in the trail, so I let out the breath I had been holding and slowly continued forward, readjusting my grip on the bow as it had started to slide from the sweat on my palms.  


By the time I reached a crude, wooden bridge over a gap in the rocks that led down to the stream, I could make out buildings a hundred yards or so ahead, and I self-consciously tried to lower myself even closer to the ground. Rounding one last corner in the trail, the narrow rock walls suddenly gave way to a wide-open expanse of snowy ground, eventually leading to numerous wooden buildings that seemed as if they had been transported directly from a bandit camp.  


The mechanical roar came, once again, and I ducked to the right, taking cover behind a large rock at the exit of the trail. I tapped my Focus to life and quickly found several large machine signatures up ahead, but they seemed oddly stationary. From my experience, the machines didn’t just lie down and go to sleep like boars or foxes, but that was almost exactly what it seemed they were doing.  


“ _Need a closer look…_ ”  


One more quick scan across the open ground showed no signs of humans, however, so I hurried forward as quickly as I could and slipped into a patch of tall grass. Several others dotted the landscape between myself and the first of these oddly-behaving machines, so I carefully plotted my route and slipped between them as quickly as I could. After each dash across the open ground, however, I needed to stop and take a break, clenching my jaw against the immense pain that was now flaring up in protest to my crouching and running.  


“ _When has a little injury stopped me, before?_ ”  


Nothing was quite this bad before, though.  


One last dash across the open ground brought me to the last patch of tall grass, but it also just so happened to be only a few yards from what my Focus told me was a Sawtooth. As I closed the interface, I quickly found the reason why the machine was so still: several large, thick metal chains lay over it, secured to some kind of metal frame set into the ground.  


Taming them?  


“ _More likely experimenting on them._ ”  


The Sawtooth shifted slightly, but the chains seemed to hold it firmly in place, so I turned my attention to checking for people, once again. Just as I was about to say that the camp was fully empty, I spotted the familiar orange outlines that indicated unidentified humans. Eying the machine warily, still, I moved behind it and along the outer edge of several of the crude, wooden buildings, until I came to the last one on the edge of an open area in the center of the camp. A tall structure stood across from me, seemingly the last thing between me and the entrance to a walled area at the top of a small hill. I could just glimpse another restrained machine inside the next area, but the Focus signatures of the unidentified people were all inside the building directly ahead of me.  


They seemed to be sitting in a circle around the outer edge of the ground floor, facing each other. By their motions and the faint sounds of raucous voices and laughter that drifted across the open ground, I assumed they must be drinking or playing some kind of game.  


“Hopefully one that will keep them distracted for a while…”  


With a deep, painful breath, I began to move across the open area, head swiveling about with the Focus interface active just in case I had missed anyone, before. I was almost at the base of the short incline up to the gate in the wooden fence when I heard the sound of squeaking metal behind me and instantly froze. The voices had grown much louder, as well.  


I whirled around in place, dropping to one knee as I did and removing the bow from over my shoulders and nocking an arrow almost instantly. A lone figure stood at the doorway to the building, still looking back inside and laughing for the time being. My heart was pounding in my ears as I forced my hands to steady, but I could still see the tip of the arrow waving dangerously.  


My eyes flicked to the right at the hint of motion from my peripheral to find another patch of tall grass and I made a split-second decision. I relaxed my hold on the bowstring and quickly shoved the arrow back into the quiver before diving to my right and ducking my head. I landed on my shoulders and quickly rolled across my back, popping into a crouched position in time to scramble the last few feet into cover before dropping almost entirely prone to the ground. The maneuver hadn’t been exactly silent, with all of the various bits of metal on my armor and the arrows in their quiver clinking and rattling, but it was also not quite as noticeable as simply shouting at the figure.  


As I glanced back through the stalks toward the door to the building, I noticed said figure leaning around the side, head turning slowly to scan over the open ground. As they moved farther out into the open, drawing a sling from a holder at their side, I saw that it was a woman wearing a thick, leather tunic and skirt, a pair of rather hefty goggles hanging around her neck. The other thing that struck me was that she couldn’t be much younger than me.  


“ _Go back inside… go back inside…_ ”  


The woman continued to press forward, placing a small, handheld bomb in the back of her sling and holding it at the ready, but lowered for the time being. I slowly placed my bow on the ground, taking care not to rustle the stalks of grass more than they already moved in the wind. When the woman didn’t react, but continued to move closer, I carefully reached one hand toward my spear behind me, tensing my legs in preparation for what seemed to be the inevitable.  


“ _Go back, go back, go back…_ ”  


Just then, the woman seemed to notice something ahead of her and stopped, eyes focusing on it. On me.  


“ _Shit._ ”  


She began to head directly for me, slowly raising the bomb sling. Once she was within only a few yards, I clenched my jaw and began the countdown in my head. Just as I reached one, another voice came from the distance and the woman spun around to face it. I almost leapt forward once she was distracted, but something made me stop, my hand still gripping the spear behind my back.  


“Maila!”  


My eyes followed the woman’s gaze to see that she was looking back toward the door to the tall building beside us. She appeared to hesitate for a moment, but eventually answered.  


“What?”  


“Where’d you go? You get lost takin’ a piss?”  


The woman glanced back in my general direction for a moment before beginning to walk back toward the building.  


“I’m not the one who can’t tell his ass from his head,” she barked. “I’m jus’ back ‘ere.”  


A man’s head sporting a rather wild beard and messy, dark hair popped around the edge of the building, a grin that revealed one or two missing teeth on his face.  


“Also, Jorgrave keeps sayin’ he’s gonna win the whole pot.”  


“That lead-head ain’t gonna win anything if he can’t shut up for a minute or two.”  


The man’s head disappeared, but the woman spared one last look in my direction before moving out of sight, as well. I let out the breath that I had been holding and slowly released my grip on the spear.  


“ _Don’t need to kill anyone tonight._ ”  


With that, I carefully collected my bow and began to make my way toward the gate in the fence, once again, but this time keeping a much closer eye on the building behind me. I pressed myself up against the wall beside the opening and brought the Focus interface up, using it to scan the open ground of the compound ahead of me. A Longleg was tied down to my right, while a Ravager was held off to the left; thankfully, like the others on the way into the camp, they both showed no signs of breaking free anytime soon. Still, I skirted around them as much as I could, passing by yet another round building in the center of the courtyard. On the other side stood a much more permanent-looking building, built out of sturdy boards and nestled into the bottom of the rocky mountainside behind it. I carefully approached the open doorway at the front, replacing my bow over my head and drawing my spear, instead.  


Light spilled from the room beyond, but I didn’t hear any signs of people from within. Almost the entire remnants of the camp must have been holed up back outside. When I reached the doorway, I pressed myself against the left hand side before peaking around the frame to see what lay beyond. Instead of an actual room, I was presented with a staircase leading down into an area that looked almost like a dungeon. My Focus didn’t show any signs of people in the lower level, but I also wasn’t entirely certain how well it could scan through thick rock walls and hefty wooden beams.  


Swallowing the lump in my throat, I tightened my grip on my spear with one hand and began to slowly make my way down the stairs. About halfway down, I suddenly heard a loud click, followed shortly thereafter by an absolutely skull-shattering shriek. I staggered backward, letting out a cry of pain as I desperately tried to cover my ears, but it was difficult with one hand holding the spear. As soon as I had retreated several steps, the sound stopped, but I still heard a ringing quite clearly in my ears, and my vision even swam before me. I tripped on one of the steps and fell backward, hitting the hard surface and sending a jolt of pain shooting up my back, only adding to the explosion in my side, as well.  


Several seconds of rapid blinking later, I was able to refocus my vision enough to make out what had caused the sudden assault. A large piece of a machine hung from the far wall, aimed at the stairs, while two small nodes were attached to either wall.  


“A trap…”  


“ _And an alarm._ ”  


I swore under my breath, scrambling to my feet and pressing against the wall to my right. The sounds of distant shouting drifted across the open ground and I groaned.  


“So much for the quiet approach…”  


I leaned toward the doorway, trying to see around it. Two figures were approaching from the open gate, weapons in hand. My grip on the spear tightened as I leaned back into hiding, activating my Focus so that I could keep track of the two orange signatures as they drew closer. When they were only a few yards from the door, they both stopped, one of them gesturing to the other. A few moments of apparent arguing later, one of them began to approach the doorway. My heartbeat began to pound in my ears as I watched them draw even with the side of the doorway and stop.  


I carefully closed the Focus interface before bracing myself to act. A moment later, a head appeared around the corner of the doorway. The man stared straight down the stairs for a moment before frowning and beginning to turn back to his companion. As he did, however, his gaze swept over me and he pulled a double take, staring blankly back at me for a moment or two. I seized his hesitation to suddenly lunge forward, swinging the wooden shaft at the back of his knee, which promptly gave out. He fell forward, but before he could even hit the ground, I lifted the spear over his head and pulled it into his throat, dragging him toward me.  


The man flailed at my arms, trying to gain some kind of grip to fight back, but I simply pulled on the weapon harder. His fighting began to grow weaker before I suddenly gave one last yank on the weapon and quickly released the pressure. The man staggered for a moment going limp. I carefully lowered him onto the stairs just before I heard a voice immediately beside me.  


“Fire and spit, what the—?”  


Before his companion could complete his thought, I struck out with the butt end of the spear, once again, this time aiming for the man’s throat. He gagged at the impact, dropping his bow to reach up protectively, but I quickly delivered another blow to his forehead. A loud crack split the air, and the man staggered backward before falling shakily to one knee.  


“Who…? You…?”  


My lips drew into a grimace as I stepped out of the doorway, winding up to deliver another blow to the side of his head, this one sending him tumbling to his side, unconscious. With a sigh, I glanced around the open area, but didn’t see any signs of other attackers, so I turned back to the aftermath. A quick search of the second man’s pockets and pouches on his clothing yielded no obvious means of disarming or disabling the alarm I had tripped earlier, so I moved on to the first man.  


My search of him was as fruitless as the first, but just as I was about to give up entirely in a huff of frustration, I noticed something in his ear. At first I thought it was a Focus, but as I leaned in, I realized that it appeared to be some kind of metal disc. I carefully plucked it out and turned it over in my fingers.  


“ _It was blocking his ear…_ ”  


My eyes widened slightly as I glanced between the small device and the mechanical alarm on the wall above the stairs.  


“ _Blocking out the sounds…_ ”  


I quickly turned his head, feeling in his other ear until I removed another, similar device and held them both before me.  


“ _Not as good as a way to disarm it, but… it’ll do._ ”  


I carefully brushed the inner parts of the metal discs off on my skirt before slipping them into my own ears. The sounds of the world around me almost immediately faded to a low hum. It was an odd feeling, almost like being underwater. I quickly glanced back out the doorway to make sure a second search party wasn’t incoming before turning back to the stairs.  


“Here goes nothing…”  


I carefully descended toward the blinking nodes on the wall, gritting my teeth before stepping between them. The force of the sound rippled my clothing, but it no longer sent me into a dizzied, staggering state. I quickly hurried down the last few steps, the sound coming to a stop once I had cleared them.  


“Well, someone definitely heard that, too… time to make this quick,” I muttered, removing the ear protection and slipping it into a pocket before turning to look around the room I had entered.  


What had first seemed to be a dungeon quickly revealed itself to be more of a workshop or storehouse, with wooden crates and various machine parts scattered about the room. The torches along the walls cast odd, flickering shadows everywhere and I warily eyed a few of them, as if they might be people waiting to attack. This first glance around seemed to reveal that it was, indeed, a workshop and nothing else, but I pulled a double take when I noticed the cages on the wall to my left. I had thought they were simply more storage, but I could quite clearly see that they served another purpose: jail cells.  


I made my way over to them, glancing in the one on the left first, but found it empty. As I moved to the second, I spotted a shape in the back of the cell, but it was too dark to make out what it was, and I was blocking the light from the torches by standing in front of it. I quickly grabbed one of them from a nearby holder and brought it back to the metal bars, holding it as close as possible to try to see inside. The shape quickly emerged from the dark, revealing itself to be a human-shaped pile of rags. At least, that’s what I thought, at first.  


My eyes widened as I quickly replaced the torch in its holder before removing my spear from its holder. I jammed the blade into the lock and pushed against it for a few moments, but it didn’t seem to want to budge. With a growl of frustration, I removed the spear, glaring at the barrier that dared to block my way. Finally, an idea popped into my head and I stowed the spear, once again.  


As I held a tearblast arrow in hand, staring down at the lock, I took a deep breath.  


“Watch out,” I called, feeling somewhat guilty about not giving a warning.  


With that, I jammed the tip into the keyhole on the lock until I heard a click and the familiar whirring sound beginning to rise. I quickly dove forward, scurrying behind a nearby crate and holding my arms over my head as the whirring reached its peak. A moment later, a loud explosion sounded from behind me and I felt the ground and crate shake slightly. The soft pings of metal shrapnel landing around me followed for several seconds before I dragged myself to my feet, peering over the top of the crate.  


The door to the cell was now drifting open, the lock almost entirely obliterated. I hurried to it and pushed it fully open, stepping inside the cell.  


“Ersa?”  


I knelt beside the human-shaped object on the ground, quickly checking to make sure no pieces of the lock had accidentally been blown into her, but none made themselves immediately apparent. My attention turned back to the head of the figure, which was still covered by a brown, rather dirty-looking burlap cloth. I tried to say her name again, but it caught in my throat as my hand shakily reached to pull the cover back from where the face of the figure should be. As it came away, I let out a choked sound halfway between a gasp and a sob.  


I had never actually seen Ersa in person, but I felt I didn’t need to in order to realize it was her. The woman’s eyes were sunken into her skull, the skin dark around them, but mainly they stared sightlessly ahead, all spark of life missing from them. I didn’t need to see more of the bruised and beaten body to know that I was too late. We were too late.  


“No…”  


My head hung as I felt hot tears forming at the corners of my eyes.  


I had failed.  


This was my fault.  


“ _You can’t say that._ ”  


I was the one who abandoned Erend when he asked for my help.  


I was the one who left her to die out here.  


All because I had to be selfish.  


“ _Stop that._ ”  


Why? It was the truth.  


“ _You couldn’t have known._ ”  


But I should have.  


My fist swung out at the nearby wall, slamming into it with a resounding thud. The pain that shot up my arm and through my side barely registered as I felt my jaw clenching involuntarily. A flame ignited in my chest and quickly began to spread through my veins, my other hand curling into a fist, as well.  


This was my fault.  


But there was something I could do, still.  


“ _No, don’t be reckless._ ”  


It wasn’t reckless.  


I knew exactly what I was doing.  


I was in complete control.  


I was halfway across the main room, eyes locked on the foot of the stairs, before I had even realized I was standing. The metal discs appeared in my ears a moment later as I spun on my heel at the foot of the wooden steps. Another figure was crouched over the unconscious man on the steps, his face registering surprise at my sudden appearance, but it quickly fell as an arrow sprouted from his forehead.  


He tumbled down the steps with multiple heavy thuds as I stormed past him, taking care not to trip on the body. As I stepped from the building into the open courtyard, I found several figures standing almost immediately before me. They all jumped in surprise, which gave me enough time to yank the spear from behind me and slice the first one on the right’s throat. Before the first drops of blood had even hit the snowy ground, I had spun the blade around, jamming it into the man to my left’s throat, as well. The one in the middle fumbled with his knife, but I delivered a swift kick to one knee. A resounding crack filled the air as he fell forward, hitting the ground to a pained scream.  


The spear came loose of the man’s throat beside me and quickly ran across the downed man’s, spraying vermilion blood across the snow in front of him, as well. As he finally fell to the ground, grasping at the gaping wound in his throat and emitting a sickening gurgling sound, my eyes raised to sweep the rest of the scene before me.  


Several other figures stood near the gate, all of them drawing their bows and slings back as I met their eyes. The spear swung in my fingers until I slipped it into its holder, dashing forward to present a moving target to this new group of attackers. By the time I reached the building in the middle of the courtyard, I had drawn my bow and knocked an arrow, pulling it back in loose preparation. As I slipped around the far side of the building, one of the figures came into sight, clearly anticipating my move better than the others. It didn’t matter, though, as my arrow struck him cleanly in the collarbone, which was left exposed by his thick leather apron. He let out a wounded howl, but this was cut short a moment later when my second arrow slammed into his forehead and he fell to the ground in a limp heap.  


One of the other figures whirled around at the first man’s cry, but wasn’t able to raise their weapon fast enough as my next arrow struck them in the temple, knocking them to the ground, as well. The last figure seemingly hadn’t heard either of his first two companions, and swiftly received an arrow to the back of the head, sending him tumbling forward onto the ground.  


More shouting came from my right and my head whipped around to find the rest of the group from within the round building outside now drawing their weapons toward me. My hand reached into a pouch at my side, without hesitation, and produced one of the handheld bombs I typically used for my sling, but instead of trying to waste time drawing the weapon, I simply spun to face the attackers and hurled it with as much strength as I could muster.  


The bomb landed squarely at the feet of the closest few, sending up a shower of snow and dirt, as well as eliciting multiple screams from the now-obscured figures. As the commotion settled, I saw three bodies lying on the ground, one of them just barely beginning to stir as I quickly nocked an arrow and loosed it toward his back. The man lay still as the arrow slammed into the back-left side of his skull.  


A whistling sound came from beside me, followed by a soft thud and I quickly dove forward, rolling across the ground before popping into a kneeling position, bow already drawn before I had even taken in my target. My eyes locked onto the vague shape of a person and I loosed the arrow. A moment later, it appeared in the head region of my target, the figure staggering and falling to the ground shortly thereafter.  


A quick scan of the open ground told me there were only three figures left, but they had learned from the bomb and had spread out, two of them already taking cover: one behind the building they had vacated moments ago, and one behind the wall to the upper area of the camp where I stood. The third was scrambling across the open ground, heading toward the main entrance to the camp.  


“Escaping? I don’t think so.”  


The man behind the wall to the open courtyard made the mistake of poking his head out, and he was quickly rewarded with an arrow between the eyes. As he fell to the ground, his friend behind the building suddenly stepped from cover, pulling the strap on his sling back and loosing one of the small bombs toward me. I swore and quickly dove to my right, the explosion showering me in debris and rattling my teeth, but otherwise leaving me uninjured. As I scrambled to a kneeling position, again, drawing my bow, the man ducked back into cover. A growl escaped me as I suddenly leapt to my feet, jamming my arrow back into its quiver and throwing the bow over my shoulders.  


My feet barely seemed to touch the ground as I closed the gap between myself and the building, my spear appearing in my hand seemingly out of thin air. As the man leaned around the corner, once again, his eyes widened at the sight of a Nora savage bearing down on him with a warcry and spear held behind her. He bumbled the bomb in his hands and dropped it harmlessly at his feet, but he didn’t have a chance to pick it up as the tip of my spear suddenly rammed into his stomach. My momentum knocked him flat on his back as I tumbled forward, rolling for a foot or two before regaining my footing and popping back into a crouched position.  


A glance back at the man behind me revealed him grasping at the shaft of my spear desperately, but to no avail. As I appeared above him, his eyes widened and his mouth opened, but I raised my foot and brought my heel down squarely on his nose before he could utter even a sound. A loud crunch sounded from under my foot as I let out a scream of rage.  


Yanking the spear from his abdomen, I whirled around, scanning the camp for signs of the last figure. I caught sight of motion near the main entrance and quickly took off toward it. As I approached the guard towers, however, I skidded to a halt.  


The motion hadn’t been the last member of the camp.  


Well, not entirely.  


The Sawtooth that had once been held down in the open field before the entrance now rose to its feet, its head quickly swiveling toward me. The last member of the camp staggered and tried to slip away from the machine, but it quickly changed its focus and let out a roar before diving toward him. Its claws easily tore through the flesh of his stomach, cleaving him neatly in half before throwing his torso aside. Despite the horrific scene, a feeling of satisfaction came over me, a twisted smirk pulling at my lips.  


A moment later, however, it fell as the Sawtooth returned its attention to me.  


“Okay, motherfucker, come here.”  


As it began to bound toward me, I spun on my heel and made a mad dash toward the gap between the nearest watchtower and the hut beside it. A loud crash sounded from behind me, but I didn’t dare look back. Instead, I dropped into a slide, grabbing the corner of the hut and using it to drag myself around the back side. I grabbed my bow from over my shoulders and went to reach for an arrow, but the pounding footsteps of the Sawtooth came from mere yards away and I scrambled forward. A moment later, the machine crashed through the side of the building I had been using for cover, the wooden structure barely seeming to faze the mechanical beast.  


I whirled in place, however, drawing my bow back and aiming for its underbelly. The arrow slammed into a moment later, the tearblast swelling in pitch and volume until entire chunks of the machine’s armor fell away, revealing the sparking wires and synthetic muscle beneath and, most importantly, the blaze container on its underside. I didn’t have a moment to draw another arrow, however, as it leapt toward me. The only thing I could think to do was dive out of the way, but for some reason I went forward, rather than to my left or right. I watched in slow motion as the Sawtooth passed mere inches above my head, only to feel a burning sensation across the back of my left shoulder a moment later. A cry of pain burst from me as time returned to its normal speed and I completed my roll, the pain in my back flaring again as it made contact with the ground.  


I spun on my knees to face the machine, once again, as it hopped and tried to face me, once again, but I drew my arrow faster. The blaze-soaked tip struck the small piece of flint attached to my bow and burst into flame moments before I released it, sending the burning tip directly into the side of the canister filled with bright green liquid. A few moments later, a powerful explosion ripped through the machine and knocked me onto my backside. I quickly scrambled back to my feet as the machine, now burning from just about every inch of the black muscle-like tissue beneath its armor, seemed to glare back at me, its red eyes somehow seeming to convey even more malice.  


“Time to put you down…”  


I quickly withdrew another bomb from the pouch at my side, gripping it tightly before leaping to my feet and planting my foot behind me. The small, yellow orb sailed through the air as the machine seemed to run straight into it. The resulting explosion ripped apart the Sawtooth’s head, sending the machine tumbling forward, the sounds of its inner workings winding down as it slid several feet through the snow, coming to rest only a few feet from me.  


I remained staring down at the burning corpse of the large machine for several moments before letting out a sound somewhere between a laugh and a shriek. The adrenaline rush began to fade almost instantly, bringing with it a wave of fatigue and all of the pain I had been able to block out for the time being.  


I staggered back to the entrance to the camp, glancing back at the bodies lying about the open ground, before limping past the wreckage of the guard tower and toward the open ground that led back to the trail along the ravine.  


“ _What did you do…?_ ”  


“What I had to…”  


I laughed softly as the pain in my shoulder blade flared and I groaned, staggering to my left for a step or two before regaining my footing. My back felt warm and sticky, and I didn’t need to see it to imagine the amount of blood that must have covered it. A pounding headache had quickly formed, pressing against my temples with each heartbeat and I even noticed my vision beginning to blur.  


“That’s… probably not good…”  


Despite myself, I couldn’t help laughing.  


Something about it was just too funny not to.  


A moment later, my left knee shook dangerously and I fell onto my hands and knees, letting out a cry of surprise. I tried to pull myself to my feet, once again, but I felt too tired. Everything was taking far too much energy.  


The sound of a voice calling out drew my attention and I lazily lifted my head, trying to make sense of the wavering double-images before me. Even things as simple as distinct rocks and patches of grass were hard to make out, and seemed to be moving far more than they were supposed to. When one of them seemed to be drawing closer, I began to realize that my first thought wasn’t exactly correct.  


“ _That’s no rock…_ ”  


I couldn’t seem to hold myself up any longer, though, and moments later my face was buried in the shallow snow. The cold, powdery covering felt incredibly unpleasant in my mouth and up my nose, so I tried to blow it away, but more seemed to take its place almost instantly. The voice grew louder and I began to panic, wondering if I had counted the number of people in the camp wrong, but I knew I had to have been right.  


They would have come from behind me, too, right?  


Suddenly, a pair of hands lifted my torso from the snow and flipped me over so that I was staring up at the sky. I blinked rapidly and tried to shake some of the snow out of the way, but a rough hand quickly reached up to brush it aside for me. As my vision cleared somewhat, I was able to make out a familiar face hovering over me, a look of concern etched into it.  


“Aloy? Are you all right? Answer me.”  


“I’m so sorry.”  


“What?”  


“I’m… so sorry… my fault…”  


Erend shook his head, no less confused.  


“What are you talking about?”  


“Ersa… my fault…”  


He froze, his face instantly turning as white as the snow my face had been buried in moments ago.  


“W-what do you mean, Aloy?”  


“It’s… my fault… didn’t get here… in time…”  


His grip on my shoulder began to tighten as I waited for him to finish off what the camp members had been unable to do.  


Someone was bound to, anyway.  


“N-no, you don’t… you don’t mean that.”  


“I… killed all of… all of them… I hope… that helps…”  


“You’re delirious. We need to get you patched up and you need rest. Get over here!”  


His last order was barked to someone in the distance, and I heard several pairs of heavy footsteps approaching.  


“I… I’m sorry…”  


“Aloy, calm down. We’re gonna get you some help…”  


“I… don’t blame…”  


I never finished my thought, though, as darkness rapidly covered my vision and I felt the strength drain from my limbs.  


At least it took the pain with it, too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've said it before and I'll say it again: Welp.


	18. To the Edge of the World

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to Monday. It snowed a significant amount where I live at the end of last week, so hopefully there's only upward to go from now.
> 
> So after last week's whirlwind of a chapter, we need a slight breather, but don't worry: it's gonna get real wild again _real_ soon.
> 
> This story has turned out rather different than I first anticipated or planned, but I hope you all are still enjoying it. My original intention was not to make this quite such a "character piece" with so much of it taking place inside Aloy's head, but as I began to work on it, that was the kind of story that seemed to feel right, at least for the opening.
> 
> Despite just saying that I went "off plan" for the beginning, I do have a plan now for how this particular story will end, and all I'll say is: it's going to be quite the bang.

A soft shaking began to rock me awake and I groaned, trying to mutter something to the effect of “leave me alone,” but it only grew more persistent. Soon, a voice joined it, which made me stop complaining altogether. My eyes shot open and I found a field of bright, but incredibly blurry, lights before me. Several blinks later and they had focused until I could make out a large display containing all kinds of constantly changing numbers within various smaller windows. A pat on my shoulder brought my attention to my left, finally revealing the voice that I had heard moments ago, and immediately creating a tight feeling in my chest.  


Samina smiled down at me softly, pulling her hand away as she took a seat on the edge of the desk in front of me.  


“How did I know I’d find you like this?”  


I tried to reply, but my throat felt incredibly dry, prompting me to swallow heavily.  


“Like what?” I finally managed to croak.  


The amused expression on the other woman’s face didn’t fade as she folded her arms over her chest.  


“Pushing yourself ‘till you collapse where you stand—or sit.”  


My lips pulled into a thin line as I closed my eyes, hanging my head and rubbing them tiredly.  


“We already finished Zero Dawn, get off my case. It’s not like you’re real…”  


A heavy sigh came from beside me, only for a hand to return to my shoulder a moment later.  


“Does that matter?”  


When I reopened my eyes, I found the image of Samina crouched beside me, the weight and warmth of her hand on me drawing most of my attention as I tried to hold back whatever feeling was building in my chest.  


“Can’t this one moment be real enough for now?” she continued just as softly.  


“But—”  


“It was a rhetorical question.”  


I stared back at her for a moment or two before her face broke into a smile and I couldn’t help laughing. Once we had calmed down, Samina rose to a standing position, groaning softly.  


“I always told you that you push yourself too hard.”  


I turned toward her, rolling my chair away from the desk slightly and clasping my hands between my knees.  


“Why do you say that?”  


“Not many people would go running right back out into the mountains after breaking several ribs.”  


At her comment, the pain returned in my side and I grimaced as I self-consciously rubbed at my side.  


“I had something I needed to do…”  


“I know, and it is exactly what I expected of you—then and now.”  


Confusion creased my face as Samina nodded toward something off to my left and I followed her gesture. At first, all I could see was the large windows that I remembered from the office at Zero Dawn, but I couldn’t see anything on the lower floor. Something compelled me to get to my feet and I slowly crossed to them, placing one hand on the cool glass as I came to a stop before it. The floor below was rather dark, the minimal lighting casting the scene in an odd, blue-and-purple hue. Despite this, I could make out a group of figures standing in the center around a large, square table. Something about the scene seemed off, like it didn’t belong in this building.  


“Okay, everyone. I’ve repaired the seal. GAIA?”  


A lump formed in my throat at the image of the HEV suit hovering over the table, the other figures clearly showing signs of distress as the conversation continued.  


That’s where I had seen it before.  


“That’s a little much, Samina.”  


My eyes widened at the voice as my vision seemed to shift focus and I could just catch the outline of braids in the reflection from the glass before I spun around. As I did, I found myself standing beside the desk, watching Aloy complete her spin in place, the red mane of braids flying about behind her as she stared at me, first, but quickly glanced over to my left. As I turned that way, as well, I found Samina smiling back at me.  


“I just thought you two needed a reminder.”  


“You two?” Aloy blurted, unable to stop herself or seemingly think of a more cohesive answer.  


Samina simply nodded, but didn’t say anything else. I glanced down at myself quickly to take in the faded red sweatshirt and stained jeans before looking back up at the young woman across from me to see her running her hands over the fur and metal reinforcements sewn into her skirt and tunic. Her head quickly lifted, as well, though, and she glanced between the two of us across from her.  


“It’s quite clear.”  


“No, it’s not.”  


She sucked in a breath through her nose before stalking over to us, coming to a halt only a foot or two away as I waited for her to continue, my eyebrows raised slightly.  


“I know whatever happened between us at the end of the Zero Dawn project and GAIA Prime was—strange and unexplainable—but that ‘evil’ version of _you_ —” she jabbed her finger at me, “was right. We can’t just keep avoiding this.”  


I sighed, nodding slowly.  


“I wish I had an answer—”  


“Are you real?”  


That wasn’t entirely what I was expecting and I found myself floundering for a moment as I searched for a response.  


“W-what?”  


“Are you a real person—the real Elisabet from the past and my visions and all that—or are you just something in my head, like her?”  


She jabbed a finger at the image of Samina, whose smile faltered slightly, but she remained silent. I could only stare back at Aloy with my mouth slightly agape for several moments before I managed to close it and cleared my throat.  


“I-I… can’t really explain it…”  


“That’s not an answer!”  


She stamped her foot, the resounding bang echoing about the room for several seconds as she glared back at me, the intensity in her eyes almost making me turn away, but I held fast. A few moments later, a soft laugh drew our attentions to Samina again, who no longer bore any signs of the sadness from moments ago, but now looked incredibly amused.  


“Now this feels like something I’ve seen before…”  


I shot her a dirty look before turning my attention back to Aloy.  


“After… whatever that was in the field… at first it felt like I woke up back in your world—”  


“But I did, too,” she added quickly.  


“I know, but that doesn’t help us,” I muttered, clearing my throat before continuing, “but since then it’s been—odd.”  


“You still haven’t answered my question.”  


The image of the young woman blurred as I found myself retreating into my own thoughts. To be honest, I hadn’t truly given much thought to the entire situation until the incident in the dream version of Ted’s office and everything since then. There hadn’t seemed to be a lot of need to, but now Aloy was bringing to mind some hard questions. Maybe it wasn’t a problem of not needing to answer them… but not wanting one.  


After several long moments, I realized that I had been staring directly at her while saying nothing so I swallowed the lump in my throat and blinked rapidly, bringing her and the room back into focus.  


“I think I’m real… but you are, too.”  


She shook her head, rubbing her temples slowly.  


“But that doesn’t make any sense!”  


“Neither does experiencing the life of another person in short bursts,” I countered, raising my eyebrows slightly.  


“I have memories that… feel _wrong_ ,” she said, bracing her hands on her hips and shaking her head slowly, a gesture I knew all too well. “I-I remember… the house and… that woman…”  


“And I remember Rost and the cabin.”  


I could make out the motion of her presumably whipping her head up to look toward me, but once again the world seemed to be growing blurry as images of the rough, log cabin flashed before my eyes, as well as the tall, bearded man that felt so familiar, yet I knew that I had never actually stood beside him while he held my hands steady on a bow, or was I just telling myself that was the case? My eyes closed for a moment as I began to shake my head slowly; for a moment, the sensation of long braids brushing against my shoulders passed over me, but it quickly faded as I absentmindedly ran one hand through my hair and felt it stop just short of my shoulders.  


“I told Erend I had been drunk before—”  


“In college,” I finished, nodding as a smile cracked my face and I managed to open my eyes, once again. “Those were interesting days.”  


“A-and I knew what a… _movie_ was.”  


“And I _felt_ like I could take on an entire camp full of people trying to kill me and win.”  


I blinked and suddenly I found myself meeting her gaze, once again, as we both fell incredibly still, but everything around her image seemed to be distant and out of focus. Every detail about the image of Aloy, however, was crystal clear; I could see every freckle across her cheeks, every small nick and cut on the exposed parts of her skin, the rough seams of her clothing where they had taken a battering from the weather and the fighting, the all-too-familiar eyes that felt like they should have been staring back at me from a mirror…  


“GAIA— _made_ you—from my DNA… a clone. That’s essentially two of the same person existing a thousand years apart,” I began, speaking almost as if in a daze. “Even in my time, we hadn’t had much chance to truly see the lasting effects and oddities with that process. We had worked out the kinks in the actual ‘recreating a human being with the same genetic code’ but not many other ramifications or side effects that came after it. There were strict laws and ordnances about when it could be done, and why…”  


“What is all that supposed to mean?” she interjected, running her tongue over her lips and frowning at the obviously cracked and chapped skin she found there.  


She had a point. What was all that supposed to mean? It was all just facts with no interpretation.  


“ _You’re supposed to be a goddamn scientist—a doctor for fuck’s sake. Anyone can read a history book and spit facts back. Use your goddamn brain._ ”  


“It means that we’re in the complete unknown with what is going on,” I continued. “By many accounts: no, it shouldn’t be possible for two people to experience what we did. That hasn’t happened with children and distant ancestors and such, but that’s not exactly our relationship.”  


“The computers from the Old World call me your name, and we know that’s probably why HADES is targeting me. I get that.”  


“But we want to know how all of this—” I tapped the side of my head, “is happening.”  


“Yes.”  


“And aside from some—theories—about things like quantum entanglement or some hyper-extreme version of the law of conservation of matter aligning in an impossibly perfect way… I don’t have a good answer right now.”  


“All I asked you—”  


“Was if I was real, and I gave an honest answer. I think so.”  


“I think, therefore I am,” Samina suddenly chimed in, prompting both of us to look over at her, seemingly realizing she was still in the room at once.  


“What does that mean?”  


“It’s an old philosophical quote—like something that’s supposed to make you think and question the world,” I explained, chewing the inside of my cheek as I stared back at the image of Samina’s grinning features.  


“I figured as much, but… I don’t get it.”  


Samina finally turned her attention back to Aloy as I was left staring at the bright blue of her headscarf, turning the quote over and over in my head.  


“Essentially, it is stating the idea that if you are able to think and have your own thoughts, then you can say that you exist, however, you can _only_ prove that _you_ exist as a real person. You cannot prove that anyone else outside you has real thoughts and is, in fact, _real_.”  


After several moments of silence, I looked over at Aloy, as well, to find her confusion hadn’t lessened and she was staring at me with an expression somewhere between lost and helpless.  


“Where does that leave us?”  


“Well, like she said: I believe I can think and all of that, so I feel real… and you say you can, too…”  


I trailed off, staring at the ground between us for a moment, folding my arms before me and tapping my fingers on them absentmindedly.  


“ _You’re going to have to admit it. Like you said, it just seems to be facts right now. ‘I think, therefore I am.’_ ”  


Therefore I am. Therefore we are.  


“So, I think we’re both as real as we were before I sealed that hatch at GAIA Prime and you went into the old Eleuthia facility… but we’re both along for the ride in your world… in _your_ head.”  


She slowly glanced between Samina and me for several moments before the motion began to pick up speed and she more vigorously shook her head.  


“But… but…”  


“Aloy, I wish—”  


“It doesn’t make any fucking sense!”  


“I—”  


“How can you, a person who I’ve found _real_ evidence showing that you existed, at least at one point, suddenly be inside my fucking head?!”  


“I already said—”  


“This isn’t real. It can’t be. You’re dead. Somehow… I’m mostly you, as well, but… this… this…”  


“Aloy, stop.”  


“Maybe I’m still unconscious from the fall off the cliff at the Proving… maybe I’ve just been dead this whole time…”  


“No, Aloy, listen—”  


“That makes as much sense as—”  


“Stop!”  


Before I knew what I was doing, I had closed the gap between us and my hands forcefully grabbed her upper arms. She struggled against them for a moment, but I refused to relinquish my grip. As her head grew still and her eyes focused on me, I leaned forward until my face was only inches from hers, locking eyes with her and hoping they were able to convey the same amount of fire I felt in my chest at that very moment. Others had told me it worked in the past, and based on how the fight left her almost instantly, I assumed it had, once again.  


“You’re only working yourself up. Stop. Breathe. Listen.”  


Her breathing still came in quick, forceful bursts through her nose, but her jaw remained firmly clamped shut.  


“I don’t have a better idea than you do for why anything has happened, but freaking out in this ‘dream state’ isn’t going to do anything other than make your waking life miserable. Instead of freaking out about how this shouldn’t be possible, think about it for a moment. Ever since the mountain, since GAIA Prime, has whatever has occurred helped you in seeking out HADES or anything else you’ve done?”  


She stared back at me and continued to breathe heavily for several moments before closing her eyes and forcefully taking a long, slow breath through her nose.  


“Yes.”  


“Do you feel more or less capable at continuing on toward stopping HADES?”  


“More… at least the same.”  


“Do you know what we need to do next?”  


Her eyes opened as her face contorted in confusion, shaking her head, as well.  


“When— _we_ —wake up, what do we need to do?”  


She let out an “oh” as she began to nod slowly.  


“Say it.”  


“Sunfall. The Zero Dawn facility.”  


“What needs to happen first, though?”  


The confusion returned almost instantly.  


“What do you mean?”  


“It will be full of Eclipse, who use their Focuses to receive orders from HADES…”  


“Oh… the network.”  


“Right. How do we take care of that?”  


“Uh… can you…?”  


My lips pulled into a thin line as I felt my heart rate accelerate.  


“Maybe, but… I don’t think we get to control how that works. I don’t want to count on it, just in case.”  


“Oh…”  


I squeezed her arms slightly as I steeled my expression, once again.  


“There is something you can do about it, though.”  


“What?”  


I simply raised my eyebrows, not saying anything, but a moment later the answer appeared at the tip of her tongue.  


“Sylens’ coordinates.”  


“And what do you need to remember when you do that?”  


“Not to trust him?”  


I laughed softly, the fire in my chest beginning to dampen as my grip on her arms lessened slightly and I shook my head slowly.  


“You’re not alone.”  


With that, I released her arms, only to wrap the young woman in a tight embrace. She appeared frozen for a moment, but moved to return the gesture, only for a splitting pain to shoot through my side and across my back, causing my eyes to squeeze closed and a groan to escape my lips. The next blink and the image of Aloy, Samina, and the Zero Dawn office were gone, replaced instead with the rough, wooden interior of a very different building. An orange glow lit the boards over my head, but my view of them was quickly blocked by another familiar face.  


“Is everything all right?”  


I breathed heavily for a few moments before nodding, attempting to reach up to wipe my hand over my face, but Erend beat me to it and ran some kind of cloth over my forehead, stopping the sweat from rolling into my eyes.  


“How’s the pain?”  


“Still there.”  


He laughed before glancing over his shoulder and nodding to someone else.  


“You’re lucky, you know.”  


“I know I am, but why now?”  


He smirked as he rose to his feet beside me, dunking the cloth he had used on my face in a small bowl of water before wringing it out beside him.  


“Well, for one: you took on an entire camp of Oseram mercenaries by yourself and lived. Secondly: the cut on your back wasn’t deep. Bled like crazy, though.”  


I shifted my position slightly, feeling the stiff line running from just past my left shoulder blade to almost the exact same position on the opposite side.  


“We had some salvebrush we were able to rub on it and bandage the wound. How’s your side?”  


I shrugged, bracing myself to sit up, but Erend placed his hand on my shoulder.  


“Whoa there, take a minute before jumping right back up.”  


I glared angrily at him as I cleared my throat.  


“I’m as good as before, Erend…”  


“Fire and spit, girl, you were delirious and rambling after we found you face-down in a field…”  


“And yet,” I began, grunting as I turned to the side, painfully dragging my feet over the edge of the cot they had set me on and placing them on the floor, “here I am.”  


He looked like he wanted to argue further, but instead shook his head and let out a defeated sigh.  


“There really is no stopping you…”  


“Nope,” I shot back, glancing around the room as I painfully worked my shoulders and back against the stiffness that settled into them.  


My eyes scanned the floor for a few moments before I found my boots placed under the cot and I dragged them out, beginning to pull them on as Erend moved to the doorway, folding his arms over his chest and leaning against the outer frame.  


“I would ask why you took on the whole camp by yourself, but… I think I found out why.”  


I paused halfway through lacing the left boot before looking back up at him. Erend’s jaw was set as he stared down at his feet, scuffing his boot on the ground in front of him.  


“I’m so sorry, Erend…”  


“You don’t need to be sorry—”  


“But it’s at _least_ partially my fault!”  


“Aloy, no, it’s not!” he barked, his voice filling the entire room and stopping whatever argument I had been about to launch in return. “There’s no way you could have known… we didn’t even know…”  


I remained silent, watching him for a long moment before he finally sighed, dropping his arms to his sides dejectedly.  


“We didn’t know he was actually going to kill her. Part of me thought… maybe he was going to ask for ransom… use her as leverage…”  


Something compelled me to my feet and before I knew it, I had stiffly made my way across the room to him, stopping a foot or so away, one hand slowly reaching out. I paused for a moment before swallowing the lump in my throat and placing my hand firmly on his shoulder, seemingly scaring him out of his daze. My lips pulled into a thin smile as he nodded, returning it with one of his own.  


“I know… how loss can hurt,” I said quietly, my voice rough and uncertain as the words seemed to tumble out of me on their own, “how it feels like… part of you is suddenly gone.”  


He stared back at me, his expression unreadable as I swallowed nervously, using all of my effort to continue to meet his eyes.  


“And so I know how ‘I’m sorry’ feels like it means nothing… so I won’t say it again.”  


He nodded slowly in response as I clapped my hand on his shoulder, once again.  


“Not yet, at least.”  


“Thank you,” he replied, finally managing to look at me, once again.  


We remained there for several long moments before I sighed and let my arm fall by my side, once again. Each step felt awkwardly stiff and painful as I made my way back over to the cot and took a seat.  


“Ersa’s body needs to be taken back to the Claim, to be laid to rest properly,” he said finally, letting out a heavy sigh.  


“I understand,” I replied, glancing up from the lacing of my left boot.  


“What will you do, now?”  


My lips pulled into a thin line as I braced my hands on my knees, trying not to let on how my breathing was coming heavier than normal from simply bending over and tying laces.  


“I have something I need to attend to…”  


“Like what you said, about the world being in danger?”  


I nodded slowly, staring down at the other boot in my hands as I played with the small fringes of binding that had started to come loose at the top. We remained silent for several long moments before he sighed, once again.  


“I know it’s useless to convince you to slow down or ask for help…”  


A short, dry laugh escaped me involuntarily as I glanced up from my boot toward Erend to find him regarding me with the beginnings of a smirk.  


“…but I’ll wish you luck, whatever that’s worth.”  


I nodded curtly, unsure of what else to do in response, before quickly securing my other boot and letting out a heavy sigh.  


“How far do you have to go?” he asked.  


“It’s… a little far.”  


He raised his eyebrows slightly as I sighed, bracing my hands on either side of me in preparation of pushing myself to my feet, once again.  


“It’s on the other side of the Jewel.”  


“Fire and…!”  


He ran his hand through his hair before shaking his head.  


“You truly are something else, Aloy.”  


“ _That’s not even scratching the surface…_ ”  


With a groan, I pushed myself to my feet, wincing as the various aches and pains shot though my torso, but I tried my best to ignore them and began looking around the room for my things. Thankfully, everything had been placed in one neat pile on one chair, so I quickly began to pull on my outer, armored tunic and skirt, adjusting each of them until they fit comfortably and didn’t rub too much on the bandaged wound on my back.  


As I began to look around, once again, something was shoved in front of me and I jumped slightly. I realized a moment later that it was my spear, and I glanced past it at Erend to see him grinning.  


“I thought you were supposed to take it easy on injured people?” I quipped, swiping the weapon from his hand and holstering it on my back.  


“Well, you spend so much time pretending you aren’t, I guess I forgot.”  


I rolled my eyes, but took my bow and quiver from him, a moment later. Once I was sure I had everything, I placed my hands on my hips and turned to face Erend, once again.  


“Will you return to Meridian after… whatever it is that you’re doing?” he asked, folding his arms over his chest and shifting his position against the doorframe.  


I chewed the inside of my cheek for a moment before I nodded slowly.  


“I have a feeling I’ll need to, anyway.”  


“Good, good—I mean, uh, well… if it’s not too much… I, uh…”  


He rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably as I raised my eyebrows at him slightly, the beginnings of a grin tugging at my lips.  


“You know, when I first met you, I thought I was a big shot talking to a pretty girl hidden away in the middle of nowhere,” he finally managed, barely able to look me in the eye for more than a second or two at a time. “Now… I just see that I was lucky to get a minute of your time… so I don’t want to ask for another, but…”  


“I’ll always have a minute for you,” I interjected, leaving him with his mouth hanging open while he stared back at me. “Maybe even two.”  


“Two?” he let out a short laugh gesturing awkwardly toward me before quickly returning his hand to the back of his neck. “Would you look at that: she likes me.”  


I grinned, shaking my head.  


“Don’t let it go to your head too much.”

 

Before truly setting out, Erend had insisted on eating with the settlers and his soldiers, and while I had originally debated ditching and hunting something along the way, the smell wafting from whatever stew the group in Pitchcliff’s main building had made prompted me to change my mind. Its taste was rather familiar, but I couldn’t immediately figure out why. As I finished off my bowl and moved to return it to the pile that some others had started by the main serving area, Erend nudged me with his elbow.  


“It’s not quite Jira’s cooking, but at least serviceable, huh?”  


Flashes of an imposing, blonde woman behind a bar and a small bedroom with a window overlooking a Meridian street passed before me and I blinked rapidly. That explained why something seemed familiar. I quickly nodded, trying to offer a laugh, as well, but the response felt awkward so I quickly spun on my heel and actually set about returning the bowl.  


The soldiers weren’t quite finished eating as I bid them farewell and slipped outside, so I quickly headed for the gate out of the settlement without much impediment. As I passed through it, I found some kind of sledge made of heavy wood sitting to my right; two rope lines were attached to the front, as it was clearly built to be pulled. What mainly caught my eye, however, was the shape in the center of it. There was no masking the shape of the body wrapped in a thick, black fabric and I painfully swallowed the lump in my throat.  


“ _It’s still not your fault._ ”  


Except it kind of is.  


Part of mine, at least.  


Finally, I was able to tear my eyes away from the body and I made my way down the short, winding trail from the front gate to the grassy ground, below. The morning air was cold enough that I could clearly see my breath billowing before me, but the sunlight cresting over the mountaintops across the valley was rather warm, so I decided against donning of my heavy, Banuk fur clothing, although a thought did occur to me and I grinned as I opened the outer bag for my bedroll and dug inside. A moment later, I produced the cloak from Teb and shook it out, running my thumbs over the soft surface for a moment before throwing it over my shoulders and securing the clasp in front of my neck.  


It certainly was warm, and seemed to absorb every ounce given by the sun, but even after almost an hour or so of walking, it hadn’t grown stifling. A smile tugged at my lips as I made my way down the final hill to the flat ground and worn trail that I knew led back to Meridian. I didn’t have to keep walking for long, however, before I came upon a herd of Striders and came to a stop.  


A grimace creased my face as I rubbed at my side, but eventually sighed, carefully removing my spear from its holder under the cloak and holding it ready at my side.  


“Walking all the way isn’t going to be any less painful…”  


It was relatively quick work to slip behind a rusted frame of some old machine and draw a Strider away from the others, but as I backed away from the now-docile modern machine, I found the pain in my side returning in even greater force, joined now by the stiffness and soreness in my back.  


“No time to stop and wait for that all to go away,” I sighed, replacing my spear its holders. “Up an’ at’em!”  


I smirked at the phrase as I quickly pulled myself onto the machine, wavering precariously for a moment before I grabbed the wires running from the back of its neck and gripped them tight enough to hold myself in place. With a gentle squeeze of my heels against the machine’s sides, it began to trot forward, the vibration and shaking at first bringing back the aches and pains, but as I continued along the path I had been following so far, they began to fade into the background; they weren’t gone, but I could at least overlook them for now.  


Eventually, I was feeling brave enough to urge the Strider into a steady gallop, and the distance to the marker from my Focus began to fall away. By the time the sun was just past its highest point, I could just make out the tops of the buildings of Meridian in the distance. Part of me wanted to stop and check in to see how the reconstruction was going, but the rest of me knew that if I delayed any longer, any rebuilding they did wasn’t going to matter.  


With my jaw firmly set, I followed the paths around the mesa and headed toward the thick greenery that marked the edge of the Jewel. It had grown rather warm under the desert sun as I approached Meridian, but it was nothing compared to the stifling heat and humidity that greeted me inside the jungle-like terrain, even as the sun was setting, taking some of the burning heat from its light with it.  


After less than an hour of travelling, I had to bring the Strider to a stop in an area clear of Stalkers and Snapmaws to remove the cloak and stow it away, once again. I debated removing some of the armored tunic, as well, but my eye caught the motion of a Snapmaw on the other side of the lake and I grimaced.  


Better safe and hot than cool and dead.  


Wiping my forehead with the back of my arm, I quickly hopped back onto the Strider and urged it along the path, once again. A group of bandits disguised as stranded travelers had set up a choke point just around a bend that took the worn trail behind a large tree, but they seemed so mystified by the figure riding a machine that they didn’t move to attack until I had already blown past them, leaving one of them to fire an arrow half-heartedly in my direction, but it fell far short as I glanced over my shoulder, smirking.  


I should have been concerned that they were so close to Meridian, but that seemed like a problem for another time.  


And perhaps another person.  


The thick vegetation blocked a great deal of the sunlight, anyway, but it began to grow almost impenetrably dark now that I could only make out the dark blues and blacks of the night sky through the openings in the foliage. The Strider was forced to move hardly faster than I could if I got off and walked, but I didn’t want to risk slamming headlong into a tree or random rock formation I couldn’t see and injuring myself further. I tapped the side of the Focus and the interface came to life around me; it indicated the small animals that scurried about the vegetation around me, and a few machines on the other side of a small hill, but otherwise did little to aid in actually being able to see anything.  


A frown twisted my lips for a moment before I found myself navigating through various menus, almost as if on autopilot. As my fingers tapped the box next to a line of text, the world suddenly seemed to come to life around me. Most things were cast in a strange outline, almost as if they had been coated in a fine sheen of light. It wasn’t as clear as daylight, by any means, but it showed me enough that I could clearly make out any obstacles in my path. I glanced back at the command I had activated, reading exactly what it said, this time.  


“Low Light Mode.”  


“Huh, right…”  


I carefully moved backward through the screens, noting the path to get to this function before closing the menu and leaving me with an unobstructed view of the world around me. The little device had already shown me a surprising array of useful abilities, but it seemed there were still some I had yet to discover… or forgotten.  


“ _There’ll be time for that later… I hope._ ”  


The Strider picked up speed, once again, now that I felt comfortable guiding us through the jungle of the Jewel, and I soon found the thick vegetation and foliage clearing away, revealing a rather steep cliff face to my right. I turned the Strider along it and continued in the general direction of the yellow marker from the Focus, although the actual, worn path was long gone.  


After travelling along the seemingly endless wall of rock for what felt like roughly a half an hour, I noticed that the synthetic marker appeared to be indicating that I was nearly on top of it, so I pulled on the Strider’s wires and brought it to a stop. I quickly swept the area with my gaze, trying to discern any signs of why Sylens had sent me here, but no people or obvious landmarks made themselves visible.  


With a frown, I turned back toward the Marker and realized that it technically said I was still several yards away from it, but the only thing in that direction was the sheer cliff face. My gaze travelled up the mass of brown rock until I noticed something that looked like it could be an opening about half of the way up it.  


“Looks like the only way to go is up…”  


With a sigh, I dismounted from the Strider and moved to the rock wall, scanning along it for signs of hand- and footholds. A yard or two to my left revealed some ledges that almost seemed as if they had been carved into the rock’s surface for this very purpose and I paused before the first one. A shiver ran down my spine as I quickly scanned the area behind me, once again.  


The obvious climbing path, the coordinates to a remote location… all of this felt too convenient.  


“He said it had something to do with the Eclipse network… but didn’t say what that meant… perfect.”  


With a heavy sigh, I began to pull myself up the ledges, trying my best to ignore the burning pain that exploded both in my side and across my back. After only ascending the first three or four handholds, I felt the grip in my left hand falter for a moment and I froze, gritting my teeth as I attempted to squeeze my fingers as tightly as I could onto the rock surface. They shook uncontrollably for several moments, the motion spreading down to my elbow, but with a growl and yet another bout of renewed force in my grip, it stopped.  


“Not the time for this… not the time to fall.”  


“ _Or fall apart._ ”  


Regardless, I tried to climb up the rest of the ledges as quickly as I could, eventually reaching the opening I had seen from the ground after only another minute or so. As I pulled myself over the edge, I scanned the small recess, but found it empty, save for an old campfire tucked under an outcropping of rock to my right. I breathed a sigh of momentary relief as I pulled the rest of my body onto the ledge and rolled onto my back, staring up at some of the vines hanging from the edge of the cliff where it continued above me.  


Everything burned and hurt and ached and screamed for me to stop and do something about it, but that wasn’t a possibility right then.  


A moment of rest was all I could afford.  


Once the worst of the pain had ebbed, I pulled myself to my feet and began to search the small, cave-like area more thoroughly. There were signs that people had been here, at one point, but the remains in the campfire had almost entirely disintegrated, leaving me to believe that it had been a great deal of time since it had last been used. Turning my attention from the small camp, I began to feel my way along the wall, most of it covered in thick vines and other plant life, but I quickly realized that it seemed to give way to a rather narrow crevice that lead deeper into the cliff, itself.  


“Secret passageway… mysterious coordinates… middle of nowhere… what could possibly go wrong?” I muttered, running my hands over my face tiredly before taking a deep breath. “Came this far already, though.”  


I began to make my way through the opening, keeping one hand on the wall beside me to help trace the path as it wound deeper and deeper into the unknown. Eventually, the crevice led to a rather short tunnel, which I could just squeeze through if I crouched. The walls felt as if they were pressing in on me as I continued onward, moving much slower, now, but faint flickers of light from the Focus interface up ahead kept me pressing onward.  


As they became clearer, I saw that they appeared to be machine signatures, although the red lines attached to them caused me to pause for a moment.  


“ _Corrupted machines…_ ”  


That had to mean something. They didn’t just roam about the wilds like their regular counterparts.  


“It’d make sense that at least some Eclipse are here… but this looks almost like a small army.”  


My hands tightened into fists as my jaw clenched along with them. Sylens had assisted me against them, before, but perhaps that had all been a ruse. This was starting to feel more and more like I had been set up.  


“ _Not too late to turn back…_ ”  


No. I could handle myself.  


I crept forward, eying the machine signatures warily, but the rock tunnel showed no signs of opening, just yet. The path ahead of me curved to the right slightly, and as I rounded it, I found the exit before me, a patch of silver moonlight spilling in through the opening in the rock. I hesitated a moment, scanning the scene with my Focus, but the machines weren’t waiting directly ahead of me, nor did I see any immediate signs of people.  


With a deep breath, I slowly moved forward, carefully slipping from the opening into a patch of tall grass only a few feet away from it. A corrupted Scrapper approached the small ledge where I remained crouched from below, but it didn’t react as if it had noticed me, and eventually walked away, allowing me to slowly release the breath I had been holding. A quick scan of the open ground below me revealed no obvious direction to go from the secret tunnel, but just as I was about to debate removing the block on Sylens’ signal, I caught sight of an opening in the wall on the far side.  


“A way through… maybe.”  


Before I could think too much about my next actions, I hopped off the ledge and into another patch of tall grass below it, grimacing as pain shot through my side and across my back, but after a minute or two of remaining still, it faded to its normal dull ache. Avoiding the various machines that patrolled the open area was relatively simple as I scurried from patches of tall grass to hiding spots behind trees and rocks, and I soon found myself clambering up a short, rock wall and onto another short ledge that led to another small tunnel covered in heavy vegetation.  


As I exited the far side and slipped into the umpteenth patch of tall grass I had come across, a hulking shape in the center of the next clearing drew my attention. At first, I assumed it was another large tree, or perhaps a rock formation heavily covered in vines and moss, but as I traced the outline made more apparent by the Focus’s Low Light Mode, my eyes widened and I found my limbs no longer wanted to respond, freezing me in place.  


It was hard to decide which feeling that came over me was strongest in that moment: fear, anger, hopelessness…  


Out of all that, however, the thought that sounded inside my head the loudest felt innocuous, in comparison.  


“ _I don’t know if I’ve ever seen one so still._ ”  


With a slow, deep breath, I found that my limbs had come back under my control and I began to plot my route around the carcass of the Deathbringer to the other side of the clearing.  


Traversing the clearing presented little to no challenge with the aid of the Focus’s Low Light Mode and a few moments of studying the patrolling machines’ patterns. Finally, I clambered over the stone ledge on the far side and was immediately confronted with a sheer drop off, prompting me to stagger back a step or two and nearly fall back into the tall grass I had just left. After I had taken a moment or two to collect myself, I glanced over the edge.  


Below me sat a sprawling complex of tents and wooden structures, all lit by torchlight. It all seemed to be still and silent at first glance, but after a few moments I noticed two figures standing on a walkway over what must have been a large waterfall, as a river ran under the wooden structure from one side, but the other opened into open air, providing a view over the treetops of the Jewel rather far below.  


“ _Eclipse camp?_ ”  


Had to be. Who else would have Corrupted machines so close by and not care?  


A frown tugged at my lips as I looked around for a way down to the actual camp, but whatever rock wall I had found myself at the top of simply dropped down to the grassy area below in a sheer cliff face, this time with no conveniently placed handholds to help climb up or down. Suddenly, something in the air before me caught my attention and I looked up from the ground below to see some kind of straight line leading from above my head to an area behind one of the tents below. It shone with the same, silvery glow as every other surface in the Low Light Mode, but I couldn’t figure out what would possibly be hanging in the middle of the open air like that, normally. With a frown, I tapped the Focus, removing its assistance, to find the strange line had turned into a bright yellow rope, just faintly visible against the darkened sky behind it. My eyes traced its path from above me to the ground, once again, and I let out a sigh.  


“Looks like a fast way down, but not entirely silent…”  


“ _You see a better way?_ ”  


Didn’t mean I had to like it.  


With a deep breath, I carefully removed the empty sling from its holder on my belt and turned it over in my hands for a moment or two. It’s curved, metal design was the perfect shape…  


“This is insane.”


	19. My Demons

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy post-holiday Monday, whichever of the two holidays you may have celebrated.
> 
> This chapter went through so many different versions while I was working on it, but I finally found one that seemed the most "right" for this part in the story. Since I'm such a perfectionist, though, I'll always feel like I could have done it better. Also, originally it was going to be shorter, but I wanted to uphold my comment from the very beginning of this story and try to aim for more in each chapter; I think we're closing in on the total word count for _Duality_ , actually.
> 
> Also, about that: I said I was hoping to not make this another 40 chapters long... well, here we are at Chapter 19, and we're not exactly done. However: I'm thinking that if I get all of my ducks in a row, I may end up doing the last several chapters as sort of "mega-length" ones (think at least twice as long as any of the ones posted so far).
> 
> Would y'all be down for that? Let me know if I'm crazy.
> 
> Anyhoo, time to get on with it.

With a sigh, I backed a step or two away from the edge of the drop-off gripping the sling tightly in one hand as I bounced on my knees a few times in preparation. Finally, after one last deep breath, I burst into motion, rushing toward the edge before me. My right foot pushed against the lip of the rock, shoving me forward into the open air as I raised my hands above my head, swinging the sling in my right hand up and over the rope. Just as I felt myself beginning to fall, I brought my other hand in and grabbed the other side of the sling, gripping it as tightly as I could. The metal device pulled against the top of the rope and almost immediately my direction of motion shifted with a sudden, jerking motion and my entire body protested the force of the action, yet my grip remained firm. It took me a moment or two to realize that I was now sliding toward the ground at a rather rapid pace, and I self-consciously pulled my feet up toward my chest to prevent them from clipping any protruding rocks.  


A familiar, light feeling appeared in my stomach and I couldn’t help the smile that had begun to pull at my lips. It took more willpower than I imagined not to let out a laugh or a cry of excitement as I barreled along the zipline toward the ground that was now much closer. As I closed within the last yard or two, I suddenly released my hold on one side of the sling and let myself fall away from the rope. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as I fell through the air, my eyes locked on the patch of tall grass only a foot or two below the soles of my boots. A moment later, time seemed to rocket forward, and I was only vaguely aware of the sensation of hitting the ground and immediately rolling across it.  


The next thing I was truly aware of was crouching amongst the stalks of grass, the sling still held tightly in my right hand as I stared across the open ground, eyes locked on the two figures on the walkway ahead of me. After several long moments of watching them, and they showed no signs of reacting to my entrance, I let out a slow, heavy sigh and ran my free hand back through my hair.  


“Holy shit…”  


I couldn’t help the quiet laughter that forced its way past my lips, but it quickly subsided as I noticed motion out of the corner of my eye. Another figure was just beginning to walk out of the tent to my left and my excitement immediately turned to paralyzing fear. My hand instinctually returned the sling to its place and prepared to reach for either my spear or my bow, but the figure had suddenly turned toward the patch of grass and me and I froze, not wanting any motion to give away my hiding spot.  


The man began to walk toward me and I felt every part of me grow tense. Just as I thought he was about to let out a yell and raise the alarm, however, he came to a stop at the edge of the grass and yawned. The tension in my limbs didn’t subside, however, and I remained entirely still; he was only a yard or so away, standing before a section of the grass just to my left. A moment later, I heard a soft sound like running water and I noticed that one of his hands was lowered toward the belt of his pants.  


“ _Had to take a leak… of course._ ”  


My fear and nerves quickly gave way to a frown and something that felt somewhere between disgust and relief.  


“ _At least he didn’t stop a few feet this way…_ ”  


Once he had finished, he let out a sigh and began to turn to head back into his tent, but I suddenly found myself slipping forward and out of the grass. Before I could totally comprehend what I was doing, my spear was free of its holster and I suddenly brought it over the man’s head, pulling it tightly against his throat. He let out a choked sound of surprise and scrambled to grab at the wooden bar now blocking the air from getting down his windpipe, but I quickly found myself dragging him back into the tall grass, intentionally away from the area where he had just stood moments ago. A moment later, I gave one last, firm tug against his throat with the spear before suddenly releasing the pressure. He gasped in one deep breath before his eyes rolled back into his head and he went limp. I carefully laid him on the ground amongst the tall stalks of grass and let out a heavy sigh, myself.  


“One less to raise an alarm, I guess…”  


Several silent, still moments passed, but no one came to investigate, so I decided that I hadn’t given myself away, and turned my attention to the camp, as a whole, once again. Other than the wooden walkway at the top of the waterfall, the only other permanent constructions in the entire camp were four towers that looked as if wooden scaffolding had been built around something metal. They were most likely twenty or thirty feet tall, but I couldn’t immediately discern what purpose they served.  


Decoration?  


“ _Those are Tallneck legs._ ”  


What?  


I examined them more closely and realized that they were, indeed, the legs of a tall machine. The bases that I had assumed were something the Eclipse had built to hold them up were actually feet that had been partially buried and reinforced with wooden boards to prevent them from toppling over.  


“So… Tallneck legs… but no Tallneck.”  


My gaze swept the camp, once again, when my attention fell on what appeared to be some sort of large, wooden gate just behind the back set of leg-towers. Deep tracks had been carved into the ground leading from them all the way to the gate, where they disappeared from view.  


“There’s something else back there…”  


“ _The rest of the Tallneck?_ ”  


One would assume. Why keep a Tallneck in pieces, though?  


Suddenly, the answer appeared on my lips, even though I had no conscious thought of saying anything.  


“They send out signals…”  


No fucking way.  


“ _The Eclipse are using a tallneck to broadcast their network._ ”  


So Sylens hadn’t entirely been leading me into a trap. That was some faith restored, but not enough to remove the block on his signal. Yet.  


“Gotta get behind that gate…”  


With a deep breath, I turned my attention back to the camp before me, scanning for a way to get behind it. The first thing I noticed was the river, but as I watched, the water was moving too quickly to swim against the current; also, at the mere thought of trying to power my way upstream, a burning pain appeared in my side and back and I grimaced.  


“ _That’s not going to be an option._ ”  


As I swept back across the camp one more time, my eyes fell on an old tree perched precariously beside the largest tent on the far side. It looked somewhat old and rotten, and half of its roof protruded from the edge of the dirt and hung in the air over the moving water beneath it.  


“ _Seems convenient… and important._ ”  


Unfortunately, there was no direct path from my position to it, so I fixed my gaze on the walkway with the two figures and let out a heavy sigh.  


“Only way there is through.”  


Holstering my spear, once again, I slipped around the back of the tents nearest to me and began to make my way toward said figures. As I drew closer, the amount of cover began to grow thin, finally ending with me hiding behind a cart full of some kind of foul-smelling barrels several yards from the edge of the walkway. I carefully leaned around the back end of the cart, only to find myself locking eyes with one of the two figures on the bridge.  


“What the…?”  


I swore under my breath and scrambled to yank my bow free. The figure brought his partner’s attention to me, as well, and he seemed to react much more aggressively.  


“It’s her! It’s her!”  


I finally managed to rip my bow free and nocked an arrow, leaning out from cover to get a clearer shot at them. Unfortunately, the arrow sailed well clear of the two figures, but it did prompt them to duck away in surprise. One of them began to run toward the far side of the camp and I swore more loudly this time. Almost immediately, another arrow was held at the ready, but this time I took more care to get a good shot, ignoring the motion of the remaining figure on the walkway, before letting it fly. A second later, the arrow embedded itself in the back of the running man’s neck and he tumbled forward onto the wooden surface with a heavy thud.  


An incoming arrow suddenly lodged itself into the cart next to me and I scurried into cover, once again. I remained seated with my back against the wheel for a moment or two, breathing heavily, before I scrambled to my left, moving around the opposite side from where I had disappeared. As I rounded the front, the lone figure remaining on the bridge quickly trained his bow on me, clearly not falling for my half-hearted attempt at deception. I only had a split-second to register the shape of the arrow flying directly toward me before something slammed into my left shoulder and I let out a cry of both pain and surprise.  


I staggered backward for a moment before falling onto my rear, the pain shooting up my spine from the impact secondary to that from my side. Surprisingly, I didn’t feel a white-hot star of pain in my left shoulder, but instead something more like a dull ache. My arm’s motion didn’t seem impeded by the impact, so I quickly readied my bow, once again, and aimed an arrow back at the figure. Evidently, he had thought he had finished me off, or at least incapacitated me, as he was simply walking toward me, his bow still held in hand, but without an arrow ready. The look of surprise on his face barely had time to register before an arrow pierced his brow between his eyes and he fell to the ground in a limp heap.  


The breath I had been holding rushed out of me at once, only to be followed by a groan of pain as I rubbed at my side automatically. As I began to look down toward my hand, something blocked part of my vision and I paused for a moment, confusion registering on my face. A moment later, realization dawned on me and I reached up to pull the arrow from where it had lodged itself in one of the pieces of metal plating on my outfit. It took a few strong tugs before I managed to work the tip loose, but as I did, I found that the metal point sported no signs of blood.  


“Well, at least we know it works,” I muttered, considering the ammunition in my hand for a moment or two longer before slipping it in my quiver, as well.  


When I finally turned my attention back to the camp, I was somewhat surprised to see no other signs of life, even after the yelling. I pulled myself to my feet and began to cautiously approach the walkway, my bow held ready with an arrow nocked to the string, just in case. Almost as soon as I stepped onto the wooden surface, however, I realized why no one seemed to have heard the voices and come running: it was almost impossible to hear anything at all over the sound of the rushing water below.  


“ _Thankfully…_ ”  


I pressed on, skirting around the two bodies and attempting not to look down at them, before finally reaching the other side and slipping into the darkened area behind the tents to my left. No obvious sounds of people or motion came from inside each as I slipped past, but I didn’t want to assume they were empty, as the man relieving himself earlier had shown. When I finally reached the largest tent at the end of the row, I scanned the open ground with my Focus to confirm no one was in sight of me before carefully slipping inside.  


Almost immediately, I was struck by how bare the shelter was; I had expected either a packed storehouse of a space or perhaps some kind of luxurious living quarters, but aside from a few tables against the outer walls, the only real fixture in the room was a raised platform at the far end that sported a set of extravagant, feathered armor on a display rack. Something in the back of my mind told me I had seen it before, but I couldn’t immediately recall where and when.  


As I approached the platform, head cocked to the side slightly, I realized just how massive of a frame the outfit accommodated. It seemed to be organized so that it was displayed as it would appear when its owner wore it, and if that was so, the headdress towered over my head.  


“It looks like it’s for show, but…” I trailed off, carefully running my hand over part of the metal chest piece and feeling just how well it had been hammered into shape, “it seems like it could withstand an actual blast.”  


Turning my attention away from the armor, I was about to head toward the back corner, where I could see the old tree I had spotted earlier when I caught sight of something else laying out on a nearby table. I pulled a double take before approaching it, staring down at the metal device. A small, somewhat transparent logo hovered over it, clearly projected by my Focus, showing a familiar shape. As I stared at it, the familiar sound of the Focus interface opening sounded in my ear and a message appeared before me.  


“Begin audio playback?”  


I tapped the “yes” option and another message opened, this time showing an image of a constantly moving, spiky animation that reacted to the sounds of the recording.  


“My lord, the thirteenth Sun King of the Carja Sundom, was murdered: cut down by cowards who mistook firm rule for madness,” began the cold, imposing voice, somewhat altered and warped by the ancient recording device he had used. “‘Ever the strong are beset upon by the weak.’ So he said as the traitors launched their assault, as their cannons, forged by Oseram filth, toppled the battlements and burst the gates. I would’ve fought to the end, but it was his will—the will of the Sun—that I lead the prince and queen into the west—to safety.”  


The voice continued to praise his king, and talk about the importance of his mission, but it was one word in particular that suddenly brought my attention fully back to it: Sunfall.  


“There, to join others and gather the strength to take back our home. But, our strength only faded… until the Buried Shadow was brought to light.”  


Suddenly, images of a snowy clearing flashed before my eyes, the faint sounds of screams and pounding gunshots echoing in my ears. Suddenly, an image of a towering mountain of a man appeared before me, his hand seemingly closed firmly around my throat. I could almost feel his cold blade pressed against the exposed skin over my windpipe, and I felt the same spot begin to burn. Along with the sounds and images, a single word seemed to appear before me, a name that seemed to override every other thought in that moment, clearly having been there the entire time, even if I hadn’t been able to find it.  


“ _Helis._ ”  


The images and sounds all disappeared in a single blink, leaving me standing alone in the center of the Eclipse tent, panting as I absentmindedly reached up to run my hand over the scar on my neck, the small line burning as if the knife had just made it seconds ago.  


“This is his tent… of course…”  


I swallowed painfully, rubbing at my neck one last time before pulling my hand away and closing the Focus interface with a quick tap to the device.  


“ _Is he here? This does look like the main Eclipse base, but… I thought he was at Sunfall._ ”  


Only one way to find out.  


With one last deep breath, I stalked past the armor on display and approached the old tree. Before I could really think about what I was actually doing with it, I found myself placing both hands on the crumbling bark and pushing with all my strength. At first, nothing seemed to happen, but several seconds later a deep cracking and groaning sounded and it began to pitch forward. Finally, the old trunk began to fall and I had to take care not to tumble off the edge of the outcropping that looked over the river below. A loud thud echoed about the narrow rock walls of the canyon beyond the gate, and I froze for a moment, whirling to look back at the camp, but even after several long seconds, no signs of motion came from the tents.  


“ _Heaviest sleeping guards I’ve ever seen…_ ”  


Might as well count my blessings when I could get them.  


Convinced that no one was going to come running any second, I turned back to the fallen tree trunk to see that it now formed a convenient bridge over the river to the ledge used as a pathway farther into the canyon, the deep tracks carved into the ground I had spotted leading up to the gate continued around the nearest bend off to the right.  


“Seems like the right way to go…”  


With a deep breath, I stepped onto the log and carefully tested its strength. Nothing immediately began to creak, crack, or groan, so I put my full weight on it, moving slowly for the first few steps, before hurrying as fast as I dared across the remainder. As I hopped off onto the stone ground on the far side, I breathed a sigh of relief, glancing back at the old log.  


“Count your blessings…”  


The path deeper into the canyon was rather winding, and it was clear just how difficult of a task it must have been to drag something large down this narrow, uneven surface. Wooden planks littered the ground, along with discarded segments of rope and other tools one would assume would be put to use in hauling things or digging said things out of spots where they became stuck. As I pressed on, however, the canyon began to widen, until finally I rounded a bend and came to a stop.  


The canyon had widened to its widest point, it seemed, but most importantly, I was now staring up at the body of a motionless Tallneck, wooden scaffolding built all around its body and leading all the way up to the flat disc that served as its “head.” Numerous heavy ropes were tied to the structure and the derelict machine at various points, all of them secured firmly in the rock walls of the canyon in an effort to make sure it didn’t shift or topple over at any time.  


As I stared up at the repurposed carcass of the machine, a shiver ran down my spine.  


“You came all this way… no time to stop just because of a feeling…”  


With that, I made my way toward the bottom of the scaffolding and began to trudge up the ramp directly ahead of me. The path to the top was winding and seemed to utilize a combination of ramps and rope ladders to scale the machine, but I finally came to the platform at the base of the neck, a single rope ladder leading all the way up to the back of the “head” above. I could see the ropes blowing slightly in the breeze and I took a deep breath, gripping the rungs directly ahead of me.  


“Don’t look down, don’t look down…”  


Before I could let my nerves get the better of me, I began to ascend the rope ladder. Despite several pauses as some stronger gusts of wind blew into me from farther own the canyon, I reached the top rather quickly and clambered on top of the large, metal disc. As soon as I did, I caught sight of a strange, metal box at the far end, clearly attached later by someone, or something, other than what had created the Tallneck, in the first place. I began to approach it slowly, and as I did I noticed a rather large cable running from the back of the box down toward something on the ground below.  


My eyes followed the path of the cable as I drew closer to the edge of the platform, until finally the scene below came into view and I froze in place, eyes widening. Visions of metal tendrils reaching toward me, closing around my body, and crushing my bones to a fine powder flashed before my eyes, replaced quickly with ones of roiling, black clouds descending from above and dissolving my flesh in seconds. I shook my head violently, staggering a step or two back from the edge of the platform to make sure I didn’t accidentally pitch forward and fall to yet another imagined death.  


“No… it can’t be here… it can’t be… _that_.”  


Forcing my eyes back open, I stepped up to the edge of the Tallneck, once again, and stared down at the partially buried Horus, its tentacle-like limbs protruding from the ground like some kind of ancient monster’s limbs rising from the depths to drag unlucky souls to their deaths. In the center of the Horus’s “face,” however, was a glowing red light that seemed to pulsate slightly, not that unlike a heartbeat. Suddenly, another name appeared on my lips, but this one felt much more immediately familiar.  


“HADES.”  


It had to be. There was nothing else it could be. Somehow, I had found it—here, at this base full of humans dedicated to the cause of overthrowing an entire kingdom… and killing me.  


“HADES is controlling the Eclipse network… of course…”  


I whirled around to face the metal box that had first drawn my attention, my jaw clenched as I approached it and gripped the panel on the top. Almost as soon as I attempted to pull it open, a bright, blue flash filled my vision and I was sent tumbling backward, my limbs involuntarily convulsing as I fell onto my back. Almost immediately, my body fell still, but I couldn’t force any part of it to function correctly.  


“ _Get up!_ ”  


I tried more forcefully to regain feeling in my limbs, and slowly felt my hands curl into fists at my sides. Almost as soon as I felt the strength beginning to return to my body, a voice sounded in my ear that left me paralyzed all over again, albeit for an entirely different reason.  


“Entity… has come here?”  


The cold, robotic tone itself was not wholly familiar, but I knew immediately what it belonged to, and what it represented. A moment later, a glowing red light appeared above the box I had attempted to open, floating in the air almost like some demonic eye.  


“You have miscalculated… Lis.”  


The ball of red light suddenly began to reform, and within seconds it had taken on the shape of a human, although it sported no defining features. Several blinks later, however, and I was staring at an all-too familiar face.  


“You didn’t think you could destroy me here, did you?”  


The digital, mostly robotic voice tinged with a drawling accent immediately sent shivers down my spine, but the smirking face of Travis Tate staring back at me, glowing faintly with a red light like some kind of demonic presence truly turned my blood to ice.  


“It’s not real… it’s not real…”  


“This is very real, Lizzy,” the image of Travis shot back. “You are in very real shit and very much over your head.”  


I scrambled to a kneeling position, pulling my spear free and holding it tightly before me as the glowing image of Travis shook his head.  


“Not going to listen to reason? I guess not much changed, after all.”  


“Everything changed,” I spat.  


“Right, we all died, and you got a second chance.”  


My teeth ground as I gripped the wooden shaft of the spear so tightly that I heard a few of my knuckles crack faintly.  


“ _It’s not actually him! It’s not real! It’s HADES! Destroy the box!_ ”  


I shook my head, closing my eyes for a moment, but the red light didn’t seem to go away. When I reopened them, the image of Travis was much closer, now standing only a yard or so away, where he lowered to a crouched position, cocking his head to the side slightly as he stared into my eyes.  


“You can paint yourself the hero all you want, and little Lis 2.0 can worship you like a god, but she doesn’t know you like I did.”  


“We worked together,” I managed through my clenched teeth, “we were on the same side. We built the system that remade this entire world.”  


“And maybe we were wrong.”  


My chest was heaving as I readjusted my grip on the spear for what felt like the thousandth time. The image of Travis continued to meet my gaze unwaveringly and, to my incredible unease, unblinkingly. Finally, his mouth opened once again, and his drawling tone was replaced with the harsh, robotic voice I had heard just after accidentally shocking myself.  


“Destroy the entity.”  


With a cry of rage, I burst forward, swinging the spear at the image of the man before me, but he disappeared as soon as the blade passed through his shoulder. The red, glowing ball still hovered over the strange, metal box, but it now seemed to glow even brighter than before. My momentum carried me forward as I turned my focus from the evil eye-like shape to the box beneath it, a mess of black and red tendrils writhing about the small, dark shape. The next thing I knew, the tip of the spear was stuck in the bottom portion, sparks shooting into the air as the glowing orb before me faltered and collapsed in on itself, disappearing back into a small ball of light that seemed to shoot back down the cable leading to the Horus below.  


“Destroy the entity!” the voice of HADES called again, but this time its tone carried a renewed edge of anger.  


As I yanked the spear from the metal box that seemed to be the link between HADES and the Tallneck that the Eclipse were using to transmit their network, I happened to glance over the edge of the platform I was standing on and froze, eyes widened. A functioning Deathbringer moved out from behind a bend in the canyon, the metal covers on its sides sliding back to reveal two banks of small holes. A moment later, bursts of fire shot from them and I could only watch as the smoky trails of the projectiles flew directly toward the Tallneck below me.  


A moment later, they slammed into the machine carcass and the floor beneath my feet shook and pitched wildly, sending me staggering back from the edge, arms windmilling wildly to try to keep my balance. Almost immediately, I noticed that the platform was beginning to tilt strongly backward and I let out a yelp of surprise and leaned forward, falling to my hands and knees in an attempt to stop myself from falling backward into the open air that was quickly opening up behind me. The spear almost came loose from my grip as it hit the metal surface that had previously been the floor, but I managed to hold on at the last second and quickly scrambled to shove it back in its holster behind me.  


The loud groaning of twisting metal filled the air, the faint sounds of cracking and splintering wood joining the cacophony and only further confirming that I had only seconds to come up with a plan of just how I was going to get off the falling structure. At that point, the angle of the floor had tilted far enough that I could no longer hold myself in place and I began to slide down it, feet first, as I desperately clawed at various wires and metal panels in attempts to slow my fall, but my fingers couldn’t seem to find any purchase. Finally, I rolled onto my back in time to find my feet only seconds from slipping over the edge of the Tallneck’s platform, the rock wall of the canyon growing incredibly close, as well.  


“ _Jump!_ ”  


What? Where?  


“ _Now! Jump!_ ”  


My eyes scanned the rocky surface ahead of me, but I couldn’t immediately make out anything that looked like a safe place to make a leap of faith, but a moment later, my legs coiled beneath me, seemingly of their own accord, and I felt myself pitching forward. As a drawn-out cry of fear escaped my lips, I found myself pushing off the metal platform of the Tallneck, my hands outstretched ahead of me, desperately reaching for something. A moment later, I slammed into the hard surface of the canyon wall, pain exploding from multiple spots along my body from my ankles to my nose. Miraculously, my fingers closed around a ledge and brought my fall to an abrupt halt, although the pain that shot through my shoulders and across my back was almost strong enough to make me let go. Despite it, and the darkness that encroached the edges of my vision for a moment or two, my hands held firm and I was even able to start pulling myself up toward the ledge a foot or so above my head. Within moments, I had thrown my leg over the lip and found myself kneeling at the start of a narrow path that led along the wall back toward the camp and where I had come from, originally.  


I only had a moment to breathe, though, before an arrow slammed into the wall a foot or so above my head, the burning tip hot even from this distance.  


“ _Run!_ ”  


Seemed like a good idea.  


I was aware that I was up and running a second later, but it almost felt like I was just watching the entire scene unfold, rather than actively participating in it. My legs powered me across the uneven surfaces and my arms dragged me up and over several short ledges, but all of it felt oddly disconnected from reality. Finally, I found myself rolling to my feet and charging into a narrow ravine leading away from the main canyon that was just barely lit by the moonlight from overhead. A figure appeared ahead of me, a flaming arrow nocked on his bow, but I simply lowered my shoulder and rammed it into the center of his chest, sending his arrow clattering to the floor and him staggering back into the rock wall behind him.  


“ _Can’t stop to fight. Gotta keep running._ ”  


The narrow ravine wound back and forth, but I stopped trying to keep track of the exact path I was taking after the first or second bend, only paying attention enough to avoid the Eclipse soldiers that attempted to get in my way or the fallen logs that nearly sent me tumbling forward into the thick vegetation that coated the ground. Finally, I noticed a bright light coming from up ahead and I dropped into a slide across the ground, a flaming projectile soaring past at what had been my head level a moment ago, the heat from the flames incredibly apparent even from a good several feet away.  


As I scrambled back to my feet, I found the metal sling in my hand, once again, and confusion rolled over me, but a small strand of bright yellow ahead drew my attention and my eyes widened.  


“Here we go again…”  


Without breaking stride, I placed one foot on the lip of a rocky ledge and pushed off, swinging my arms over my head and grabbing hold of the sling with both hands just as it hooked over the top of the rope. Immediately, I began to careen down the length of it toward a large rock that had been used to anchor the opposite end, but my eyes were mostly drawn to the Eclipse soldier waiting just before it with a spear held at the ready.  


With a sound that I could only think to call a war cry, I released my hold from the sling and felt myself begin to fall through the air toward the very man who was brandishing a sharp, metal point at me. Just as I drew within a foot or two of him, however, the sight of a flame-haired girl sailing through the air screaming like a crazed Longleg seemed to cause him to falter and he lowered the spear for a moment. It was just long enough, though.  


My full body weight slammed into the cultist and we were both sent tumbling to the ground. I threw my weight to the left as soon as I felt my fall come to an abrupt halt and managed to tumble out of the way of the rock, but the Eclipse soldier was less fortunate, and I heard his head hit it with a sickening crunch. I paused for a moment, staring at the still form of the man who had been so intent on killing me a moment ago, but the sound of more shouting and explosions quickly compelled me on and I scrambled to my feet, once again.  


Several more Eclipse soldiers stood between me and another ledge, but I could just see the tops of several of the tents from the camp and I forced myself to continue onward, eying their spears and trying to plot my path around them. One cultist got a little too close, and I was forced to plant my right foot and quickly push off to the side, spinning around the tip of his spear as he thrust it toward me. As I completed my revolution, I threw my elbow out, which connected with something hard a moment later. Pain rippled up my arm from the contact point, but I was able to grit my teeth and ignore it as I glanced down to see the Eclipse cultist sprawled on the ground, clearly dazed from the blow to the back of the head, but still alive.  


“ _You have to keep moving._ ”  


I tore my gaze away from the man below me and focused on the tops of the tents up ahead, sprinting toward them with as much speed as I could muster. When I reached the ledge overlooking the edge of the camp, I once again pressed ahead, leaping from it toward the canvas siding only a few feet away. When I hit it, the surface caved slightly, but the structure didn’t collapse and I slid down it, landing on my feet a moment later.  


Another Eclipse soldier suddenly appeared around the corner of the structure, charging at me with his spear, but I swung my arm and manage to knock it aside before he could plunge the sharpened tip into my chest. The man staggered slightly as his weight was thrown off-balance and I shoved him into the side of the tent before taking off past him, ignoring his friends that were bearing down on me from the right.  


The last sprint to the wooden walkway I had crossed earlier seemed to pass in a flurry of lights, sounds, and motion before I suddenly found myself standing before some kind of protrusion that extended over the waterfall I had heard earlier. It seemed to be made of three pieces of thick tree branches, the far end branching into two spread points lashed to the main post by a generous coil of rope.  


“ _Only way out is down._ ”  


What? No… oh no… no, no, no, no—  


The next thing I knew, I felt like I could only watch, once again, as I threw myself off the side of the bridge and over the edge of the waterfall. My body twisted in mid-air, my hands instinctually grabbing a coil of rope from my belt and swinging it back up toward the tackle point I had been staring at moments ago. The clawed tip affixed to the end found a hold in the crook between the two protruding arms and seemed to hold fast as my hands took hold of the rope and I wrapped my legs around it, using the pressure between the two of them to attempt to slow my fall.  


Miraculously, it began to work. It seemed like I wasn’t going to wildly crash into the water below and break my spine on a hidden rock underwater. For a moment.  


The next thing I knew, the wooden structure my rappel was attached to exploded in a ball of flames and splinters and I felt the tension in the rope go slack. Any speed I had lost in the few moments I had managed to hold on began to come rushing back with a vengeance and I found I could do nothing but scream and flail my arms wildly as I tumbled into the cascading torrent of water beside me.  


The world was nothing but a whirling display of silvers, blues, and reds around me as the sounds of the rushing water and my own screams echoed in my ears. I was falling with my back to the ground, so I had no way of knowing when to expect the inevitable short stop, but in that moment, time seemed to slow to a crawl. I was vaguely aware of some kind of presence looming behind me and I assumed I was only a moment or two away from reaching the bottom of the waterfall, and despite that seeming like it should have been a rather distressing realization, only one thought seemed to pass through my mind at that very moment.  


“ _And to think before I just wanted a peaceful death at home._ ”  


The next instant, the world snapped back to its normal speed and I felt a cold, hard surface hit me from behind, instantly plunging me into total darkness, where not even sound could penetrate it.


	20. Brink of Death

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Monday, once again.
> 
> So, this week's chapter has been an interesting process. Here's a little insight into how I've been working on this project thus far: I typically write at least several chapters ahead of where I post, so that way I'm not pressured to come up with each chapter within only a week's time. So far this has worked out just fine, where I've been about three or four chapters ahead, so I can write in big chunks when I feel inspired and then give myself a week or two of time off if I'm not feeling particularly inspired. Lately... this gap has narrowed considerably. Case in point: this chapter was finished _last night_. It's gone through about five different versions in the past several weeks, with me rejecting each one and starting again almost entirely from scratch. Finally, I managed to come up with this version that I deemed fitting and here we are.
> 
> I'm not about to say that I'm going to slow down posting, though. Don't worry.
> 
> I guess the point of this big, rambling anecdote is just that I invest a lot of myself into the things I create, and this story is no exception. It was originally conceived as something very different, but somehow took a slightly different path along the way, which can be fine, but also makes me wonder if that original version would have been better.
> 
> Oh well, I guess it's too late now.
> 
> TL;DR: this chapter took my forever to write and I've maybe finally gotten back into my groove after a rather rough period of low inspiration and seemingly even lower work ethic.
> 
> Once again, thank you so much to anyone who continues to follow along and enjoys the fic. It means the world to me.
> 
> Okay, it's go time.

The darkness only lasted for a minute or two before something finally seemed to penetrate it. At first I thought I might be coming to in the pool of water below the waterfall by the harsh, cold feeling that seemed to rub at my skin and burn my throat, but I quickly realized that I could breathe easily, and not feel like I was choking. I tried to brush off whatever seemed to have settled on my arms, but when my hands touched them, I found something cold and rather wet. I tried to open my eyes to see what the sensation was, but my eyelids almost seemed stuck shut. The sound of my teeth chattering reached my ears as the feeling on my arms only grew more intense, and I began to frantically rub at my eyes, trying to open them.  


A moment later, something soft and warm appeared around my shoulders and I froze. It was such a jarring change from the cold, harsh feeling, but there was something else familiar about it…  


Just then, my eyes finally seemed to cooperate and shot open, only for me to hurriedly squeeze them closed, again, as a blast of bright light greeted me and sent stabbing pain through my skull. The soft, warm thing that had wrapped around my shifted slightly and I felt something press against my back, prompting me to suck in a breath through my clenched teeth as it appeared just over the large cut from the Sawtooth, except… pain didn’t immediately shoot out from the point of contact.  


“ _What is going on?_ ”  


Finally, I managed to open my eyes, again, only to find nothing but a blinding white stretching out before me. I blinked rapidly to try to clear it, but almost nothing changed, except I could just begin to make out shapes within the field of white. Before I could fully decipher what they were, however, the same pressure on my back appeared again, and I tried to turn around to face it, but found my vision was blocked by a rather large, dark object. After a few seconds, I realized that it was whatever soft, warm thing had appeared around me moments ago, and it only took me a few more moments to realize what it was.  


“The cloak…”  


Motion from the corner of my eye drew my attention away from the furry article of clothing, but as the image of what had actually moved came into view I found myself frozen in place, an extreme chill settling over me, even despite the warm wrapping.  


“I see yet again you have sought to ignore my advice.”  


My heart began to pound in my ears as I took in the sight of Rost looming over me, an amused grin appearing on his face.  


“N-no… you…”  


He shook his head, forcing whatever words I had meant to say back down my throat.  


“We both know what this is,” he sighed.  


After several long moments, I finally managed to push the lump blocking my throat back down, which allowed me to speak again.  


“Just a childish dream?”  


“You’re no child, Aloy.”  


The corners of my eyes began to burn as I adjusted my position, eventually ending up on my back looking up into the all-too familiar face.  


“Am I…?”  


Rost began to shake his head and I fell silent, biting my lip slightly as I did.  


“Despite your seeming reckless abandon in ignoring my last instruction to simply ‘survive,’ no, you are not dead yet.”  


“Yet…”  


“Everyone must die someday, Aloy.”  


My lips pulled into a thin line as I happened to glance past Rost to notice a familiar splash of red against the background. For the time being, however, I turned away from it, focusing back on the weathered face above me.  


“Rost, I… I came back to the cabin… to…”  


“I know.”  


“Y-you do?”  


“If you believe it, then yes.”  


I sighed, closing my eyes as I slowly shook my head.  


“Of course… just like that young Elisabet and Samina and… all of that.”  


“Does that make them any less real to you?”  


“How could it not?” I shot back, my eyes flying open as my hands clenched tightly around the cloak wrapped about me. “You always taught me to be thoughtful and discerning of everything around me, so how could I even pretend that they’re real, even for a moment?”  


“You believe I am.”  


My attention was finally brought back to the only other color in the white, cold expanse around me, my jaw clenched. The image of an older Elisabet, as I remembered her from the Zero Dawn recordings and visions, stood a few feet away, her arms folded over her chest as I noticed her shoulders shaking slightly. Rost followed my gaze, grinning as he glanced between the two of us.  


“I see you found the mother you always so desperately wondered about.”  


“Not exactly.”  


“Aloy…”  


“A thousand years is kind of a large barrier, like—”  


“Death?”  


My mouth hung open for several moments before I forcefully closed it, nodding curtly.  


“I’m sorry that you did not have someone you could meet in your own time,” he sighed. “I always hoped you would, but… something inside told me it was not to be.”  


“I didn’t need to.”  


The words tumbled from my mouth almost without conscious thought, and I found myself staring up at Rost blankly, my mouth left hanging open after the last word. Finally, when I began to feel the raw burn of the frigid air on my tongue, I clamped my jaw shut, clearing my throat.  


“And why is that?”  


My eyes drifted to the older, flame-haired woman behind Rost to see her giving me a small smile, nodding slightly, almost as if encouraging me.  


“I had you.”  


His eyebrows raised as I found myself shifting in his hold, turning so I lay mostly on my side, facing his chest. A moment later, I buried my face in the front of his tunic, wrapping my arms around his massive frame as best I could.  


“I got to know her through… whatever happened to me… but you taught me so much… I think she’d be fine with it.”  


A deep chuckle sounded in his chest as his arms slowly wrapped around me, squeezing me for a moment before releasing me, although I didn’t make any move to pull away.  


“For what it means,” the voice of Elisabet chimed in, suddenly much closer, “you’re right.”  


I tilted my head slightly, allowing me to just make out her shape past the leather, fur, and metal of Rost’s clothing.  


“I always had my mother growing up… and you had Rost. We both had exactly who we needed for our separate lives.”  


Rost shook me slightly and I turned my attention back up to him to see him grinning, once again.  


“I like her. She seems wise.”  


I couldn’t help the laughter that burst from me, as I heard it echoed from Elisabet several feet away. Quickly, however, I found it turning to sobs as I buried my face against Rost’s chest, once again.  


“ _No, you can’t show this now…_ ”  


“When else can you?”  


My head instantly snapped back, looking up at him, once again.  


“How did you…?”  


“Aloy… you know where we are. Even if you think it…”  


Oh, right.  


“So… I’m not dead, but…”  


“That’s all that matters.”  


“Is it?”  


“As long as your heart still beats, I know you can accomplish whatever you set your mind to. So yes. For you, surviving is all that matters; everything else will fall into place eventually.”  


I felt my lower lip beginning to quiver and I bit down on it sharply, closing my eyes against the hot tears that still threatened to leak from them.  


“You were meant to keep the world from the brink of death. It’s in your blood.”  


I tried to wrap my arms around him one more time, but I only found myself grabbing empty air as I staggered forward, catching myself before I could fully tumble to the ground. When my eyes shot open, I didn’t find the white, cold expanse from moments ago, or either of the two figures, but instead a small, dim light in the center of a black void. I blinked several times and it began to focus, a small, blue circle materializing from the darkness around it. It had a similar quality to the projections of a Focus recording, so I tentatively reached toward my right ear, but found that my device seemed to be missing.  


“Why would you have it here?” I muttered.  


My footsteps seemed to ring as if I were in a rather large, open space as I crept toward the floating circle, glancing around for signs of Rost or Elisabet, but I seemed to be alone. When I drew within a foot or two, I began to make out the design in the center of the projection: a small plant with a single leaf growing from the ground. It immediately felt familiar, but I couldn’t figure out why. My fingers tentatively hovered over the surface of it, but I found myself holding back.  


Was I afraid? Why? It was just a little floating circle in an endless black void where I had found myself after falling off a waterfall. Nothing malicious, clearly.  


With a deep breath, I touched the logo with my index and middle fingers and it emitted a synthetic chime as the outer ring around the plant logo began to spin. A moment later, the image emitted a blinding flash and I recoiled slightly, raising one hand to cover my eyes. When I lowered it a moment later, I found myself staring at a projection of a woman, although the image appeared rather unstable, like the data had been incredibly corrupted.  


“Still—not—safe.”  


“GAIA?”  


The name tumbled from my lips without the thought even consciously passing through my mind, but as soon as it did, the face and long, flowing dress immediately became familiar.  


“Still—dangerous—do not—repair—”  


“I know, HADES is still out there,” I sighed, but immediately paused as I wondered if the image could even hear or react to me.  


“Do not—trust—”  


My eyebrows raised slightly as I took a step forward insistently.  


“Don’t trust who?”  


The image of GAIA tried to say something else, but both the projection and her voice began to skip and repeat uncontrollably, until finally it all seemed to freeze in place, leaving me standing in the midst of the strange void in total silence.  


“Jeez, could she be a little more cryptic?”  


Evidently that was not to last.  


I whirled around to find another figure approaching from the darkness behind me, a smirk already set into her features. A frustrated sigh escaped me as the young Elisabet brushed past my shoulder and began to pace around the frozen image of the AI.  


“I mean, I know she’s basically dead and inside your head and all, but _I’m_ able to give more than that.”  


I simply rolled my eyes, placing my hands on my hips and starting for a moment at the feeling of leather and fur under my fingertips.  


“Nothing to say, this time?”  


My jaw clenched as I stared back at the look-alike, who was slowly running her fingers through the frozen image of GAIA, her skin glowing blue as they passed through the projection.  


“So, you fell off a bridge… that’s gotta hurt.”  


“What’s your point?” I snapped.  


She glanced back at me, once again, placing her hands on her hips in a nearly identical pose to myself that sent a shiver running down my spine.  


“My point is: you and your ‘Lord and Savior’ are on a fast track to fuck everything up… big time.”  


“And you know this how?”  


“I don’t need to be some omniscient god to know that the older me is literally causing your body to fall apart,” she shot back, taking an emphatic step closer. “She burned her own team down to husks… and now she’s going through two bodies—two lives—that easily? I can’t decide if that’s sadism or masochism.”  


“I knew what I was getting into!” I snapped. “She didn’t _force_ me or _control_ me into doing anything!”  


“Oh?” the young Elisabet said, raising her eyebrows coyly. “Like how you completely decided to go after Olin first, instead of helping Erend find Ersa?”  


My teeth ground audibly as my fingers clenched and unclenched around the leather of my outer tunic.  


“We needed to know—”  


“For fuck’s sake, she’s corrupted your brain already, too!”  


The image threw her hands in the air, tossing her head back as she did, too.  


“What have you really done—or discovered—that will help anyone?”  


“I know about HADES…”  


“Big deal, so do the Eclipse.”  


“I know that I’m the only one who can get into any of these facilities.”  


“And what has that done for anyone other than yourself so far?”  


My mouth hung open to reply, but I found that no words came, except an exasperated, strangled sound. It quickly turned into a growl as I spun on my heel, beginning to pace in the opposite direction from the two images.  


“You know you have to stop HADES from killing you and everyone else, but how do you plan to do it?”  


“We’re figuring it out!”  


I whirled to face the doppelganger, again, to find her laughing loudly, tilting her head back as she placed her hands on her lower back.  


“ _We_? You mean hoping that the voice in your head that is maybe the actual Elisabet Sobeck from a thousand years ago and maybe just some weird figment of your imagination will magically just solve your fucking problems?”  


My jaw was clenched so tightly that I thought one of my teeth might crack from the pressure, but I held back from verbally or physically retaliating.  


“I thought you were supposed to be made of the same stuff as me,” she continued, her eyes boring into mine, “but I guess if you make a copy, you can’t expect it to be just like the original…”  


Just as I was about to lunge forward at the image, another voice from my right prompted us both to whirl toward it.  


“Don’t pull that shit. You’re not even like the real me.”  


The image of an older Elisabet, dressed as she had during the vision with Rost, seemed to be seated on the ground, her knees pulled tightly to her chest while her arms hugged them tightly in place. She wasn’t looking at either of us, though, but seemed hyped-focused on her kneecaps. Something about the way she sat and moved seemed… so different than anything I had seen of her before, or even from moments ago.  


“Do you even know who that is, anymore?!”  


The younger Elisabet’s tone ended in a shrill scream, her voice echoing about the “room,” although I couldn’t seem to figure out exactly how big the space was supposed to be. The darkness stretched far enough that it seemed to be infinite.  


“Elisabet Sobeck died on a bench outside her mother’s house in 2068. Do you seriously think every part of her being just magically teleported a thousand years into the future to take up residence in the mind of her clone?”  


“I don’t have any question of who I am,” the older Elisabet said quietly, although each word dripped with venom and a strength that her posture didn’t convey. “How I ended up where I did, and to what extent that makes me ‘still alive’ I haven’t figured out… but I’m more me than you ever fucking could be.”  


With that, she finally turned her gaze from her knees to the younger Elisabet, who glared back at her with a look of such fury that I seriously began to wonder if I could ever portray such an emotion on my own face.  


“Fine,” she finally said, her tone low and even. “Destroy yourself, again, in the idea of saving the world. Just remember: you’re bringing someone else along with you at the end, this time.”  


With that, something strong hit me in the center of my chest and I staggered backward, looking around for what had hit me, but all I found was the image of the two Elisabets frozen in a staring match, both impossibly still.  


“E-Elisa—”  


Before I could even get her name out, the force came again, pressing firmly on my sternum. My vision went completely black until the pressure suddenly pulled away. In the absence of the physical contact, I became aware that light and sounds had burst into existence around me. My lungs were burning, so I tried to breathe deeply, but something was still blocking my throat and I immediately began coughing, a sharp pain squeezing at my temples as I desperately tried to clear my airway and inhale the air I so desperately sought. I was aware that I was suddenly rolled onto my right side and with one last, heaving cough, a cold liquid suddenly spewed from my mouth, my stomach tightening as I retched water and bile.  


A moment later, however, I heaved a large, gasping breath, the oxygen finally reaching my lungs and providing a temporary relief to the burning in them. I was vaguely aware of a voice nearby, but I couldn’t focus on what it was saying, I had to keep breathing. Finally, after several long seconds of gasping and coughing up small amounts of water, I felt as if I was no longer on the verge of passing out, once again, and I began to roll my head to the side, trying to see who had spoken.  


The vague silhouette of a person against the silver moonlight from overhead hovered over me, but I couldn’t make out any defining features, except…  


My eyes widened as I tried to scramble away, but a firm hand appeared on my shoulder, holding me still.  


“Easy, easy…” the deep baritone said, although it did anything but calm me.  


With each blink, the image of Sylens kneeling over me came into view. He sported no blue and purple hue, no obvious voice distortion from the Focus… he was actually here. He had… wait… no…  


“Contrary to what you may believe,” he began, “I am not here to harm you. In fact, I have just saved your life.”  


I tried to utter some kind of response, but another violent coughing fit prevented me from forming any real words. The constant pressure of Sylens’ hand on my shoulder burned like Corruption, but there was no way I could hope to push him away in my current state.  


“I have to say, I admire the bravery of entering the Eclipse base entirely unprepared… despite the foolhardy nature and lack of planning.”  


“I… I didn’t see you… doing it instead.”  


He laughed softly as he shook his head, but finally pulled his hand away.  


“From the recordings I have recovered, you are undoubtedly a Sobeck… whichever of you I’m speaking to.”  


Confusion creased my brow as my fit finally came to an end and I began to push myself off the ground, my entire body protesting the motion.  


“Based on the display of disregard for personal safety or planning, I would surmise you are Aloy, and not Elisabet, correct?”  


“ _He doesn’t know…_ ”  


Let’s keep it that way.  


“I’m glad I’m at least consistent,” I muttered, finally managing to bring myself to a kneeling position, although I nearly collapsed onto the ground, once again, as a wave of pain pressed at my temples and darkness began to encroach on the edges of my vision. “So… why are you here?”  


“You should be thanking me.”  


I laughed dryly, the motion immediately bringing about a new wave of pain that brought a groan to my lips a moment later.  


“Well, if that was a suicide attempt, then I apologize.”  


“Everything you do has a reason,” I finally managed. “You weren’t here to drag me out of that water just out of the kindness of whatever you call a heart.”  


Sylens eyes narrowed as he leaned back on his heels, his fingers tapping impatiently on his thighs.  


“My concern for your survival extends beyond a simple desire to preserve another’s life, that is true, however—”  


“So why are you here?”  


His mouth hung open for a moment or two before he shook his head slowly, his lips pulling into a smirk.  


“Perhaps more of Elisabet has rubbed off on you than I thought.”  


“It’s in my blood, you know.”  


An actual laugh escaped him and it immediately sent a shiver down my spine. I really hoped he wouldn’t do it again.  


“Which is precisely why I am concerned with your survival—and why I knew you would be here eventually.”  


“I don’t know what else I expected…”  


“Neither do I.”  


With a sigh, I began to push myself to my feet, but my legs didn’t seem to want to fully cooperate, just yet, and I fell back to the ground, letting out a growl of frustration.  


“You may be interested to know you were successful, though,” he continued. “The Eclipse network is down.”  


“Great.”  


My tone was dripping with sarcasm, but he didn’t seem to acknowledge it, or even the fact that I had spoken.  


“This provides us with a very narrow window.”  


“Us?”  


“If you thought I would passively sit by while you retrieved the secondary files from Zero Dawn, all of which amounting to immeasurable importance, then you were sorely mistaken.”  


“Well, I’m certainly sore,” I muttered, “so what else is new?”  


All traces of amusement on Sylens’ face were gone, replaced with his normal expression of something between cold indifference and annoyance.  


“You are not in any state to reach Sunfall on your own, regardless.”  


“I’ve managed myself just fine so far.”  


“One could argue otherwise.”  


My teeth audibly ground as I began to force myself to my feet. The pain was nearly comparable to the memory of a Strider landing on my ribs, but I managed to bring my limbs under control until I stood uneasily over Sylens, my stance spread wider than normal to help brace myself form falling over, as the hints of darkness began to appear at the edges of my vision, once again. His expression barely changed at my actions, although I noticed that perhaps the annoyance had faded, somewhat.  


“What will you do to stop me?” he challenged, instead, rising to his feet with much less effort and struggle than I had.  


“I can just grab a Strider and leave you behind.”  


A smirk began to appear at the corner of his lips, once again, before he placed his fingers between his teeth and let out a short, loud whistle. Heavy footsteps sounded form nearby, and a moment later a Strider with eyes still glowing blue appeared from within the dense foliage of the Jewel’s jungle, coming to a stop only a few feet away and staring blankly between the two of us.  


“I was able to copy your Focus before you, or Elisabet, blocked my signal completely,” he explained. “Therefore, it was only a matter of obtaining the same component from a Corruptor for myself, which was relatively simple as you have left several lying around from your exploits.”  


“Y-you… you copied me…”  


“It has proved rather useful so far, yes.”  


A moment later, motion beside the Strider drew my attention and my eyes flicked to it to find another redhead running her hand along its flank, a smirk not unlike Sylens’ on her face.  


“I guess that’s just in your blood, too,” she taunted, glancing over toward me before patting the Strider and beginning to pace behind it, although she never reappeared on the opposite side.  


“So, we do appear to be at an impasse,” he explained, “but we are also running out of time. We are rather close to the Eclipse camp you just escaped, and they will undoubtedly come searching soon, to confirm your death.”  


My jaw worked tensely as I turned my attention back to Sylens, a hot feeling appearing in my cheeks as my heart began to pound in my chest. Almost every part of me wanted to rip my spear from its holster and skewer him with it, but the rational half of my brain that hadn’t been effected told me that I didn’t possess the strength or ability to do such a thing at that moment.  


“ _Goddammit…_ ”  


“Are we going to Sunfall, or am I bringing you there the difficult way?”  


After several seconds of tense silence, I let out the held breath that had begun to burn in my chest, shaking my head slowly.  


“Fine.”  


Suddenly, the sound of shouting came from the distance and we both spun to look in its general direction. There was no immediate sign of figures drawing closer, although I thought I could just make out the hints of moving lights in the distance.  


“ _Something tells me those aren’t torches…_ ”  


“Time is of the essence, Aloy,” Sylens said and I felt a hand on my upper arm, prompting me to whirl toward him, jerking it violently out of his grasp, as I did. “Will you get on the Strider—now?”  


With one last glare toward him, I stepped up to the machine and pulled myself onto it to a whole new bout of aches and pains flaring up throughout my body. Once I was seated on its back, I moved to slide backward, however Sylens placed hand on my back and stopped me.  


“You take control. I will ride behind you.”  


I rolled my eyes as he began to pull himself onto the machine behind me.  


“Even in person, you’re still making me do all of the work.”  


“Now is not the time for such quips,” he sighed. “The Eclipse draw near.”  


“I noticed.”  


“Good, now go!”  


I urged the Strider to turn along the river away from the waterfall and the Eclipse camp before digging my heels into its sides and encouraging it to head along the bank at a decent pace, although nothing close to a gallop. It occurred to me that I had no idea where to go, but at least following the river for now seemed as safe a bet as any. Within minutes, the foliage began to thin and we suddenly broke free of the trees, which prompted me to yank on the cords and bring the Strider to a halt only yards away from the edge of a sheer cliff face.  


“Too close…”  


“Left,” Sylens commanded, pointing in the direction, as he spoke.  


Seeing no better option, I followed his directions, turning the Strider alongside the drop off and heading across the river. The water carried a good current, however it was not strong enough to cause any danger of the machine tipping over. Once we had ascended the opposite bank, I urged the Strider along at a faster pace, the wind from ahead brought on by the speed of the mount combined with the wind blowing into us from over the edge of the cliff to our right felt almost like I was trapped in some kind of storm, like the ones I had seen in the deserts around Meridian, where the sand was whipped up into a cone shape, stretching into the sky.  


The one benefit was that my clothing and hair was quickly drying out.  


Not long after leaving the river behind, I noticed that the path we had been following was descending toward the thick foliage below, and within minutes we had left the windy cliffs for the stiflingly humid jungle below. Immediately, I thought back to my ride to the Eclipse camp and brought the Strider to a stop.  


“What are you doing?” Sylens immediately asked, a hint of annoyance in his tone.  


“Hold on,” I shot back, tapping my Focus and bringing the interface to life.  


Within moments, I had activated the Low Light Mode, once again, and the outlines of the plants and trees nearby came to life. Along with them, however, I noticed an odd shape directly ahead. It didn’t look like anything around it, or even all that natural…  


“Fuck!”  


Before Sylens could say anything, however, the Stalker’s cannon launched a bright, blue projectile at us. It hit the Strider at the base of its neck and the machine staggered to the side, sending us both flying from its back. I hit the ground with a loud grunt as pain exploded across my side and back. The sounds of the Strider attempting to get to its feet, once again, came from nearby, but a moment later something heavy landed on top of it and shook the ground beneath me. I rolled onto my stomach and lifted my head to look toward the commotion to find the Stalker that had attacked us a moment ago standing atop the downed machine, sparks sputtering from the points where its sharp claws had ripped away the outer armor. The blue lights of our mount’s eyes began to fade as the Stalker trained its cannon on its next target: me.  


A moment later, however, something hit the side of its head and it turned away from me. I spared a glance in the same direction to see Sylens holding something at the ready to throw at it. Sensing my opportunity, I scrambled to my knees, drawing my bow from over my shoulders and ripping an arrow from my quiver; I could feel that several were missing, most likely falling out during the tumble, but I didn’t concern myself with it too greatly, for the moment.  


The next second, the arrow flew from my bow and collided with the hostile machine’s neck. A familiar whirring sound came from up ahead until a powerful explosion ripped through its armor, tearing a good deal of it free. The machine staggered off the body of the downed Strider, looking about wildly for what had suddenly damaged it so severely. Before it could totally recover, I nocked another arrow and aimed for the small cannon on its back. Just as it was about to fly from between my fingers, however, the Stalker’s cloaking reactivated and I momentarily lost sight of it amidst the background foliage. As such, the arrow soared harmlessly past and into the trunk of a tree, the tearblast explosion a moment later sending splinters and chips of bark flying.  


I cursed under my breath as I drew yet another arrow and searched for the vague outline of the Stalker amidst the myriad of lines and shapes from the foliage moving about ahead of me. Finally, I caught sight of the same motion that had drawn my attention the first time and I aimed the tip of my arrow just ahead of it, letting it fly a moment later. The faint sound of the metal tip making contact with something else made of metal echoed across the open ground, before the tearblast explosion ripped through the air, once again. This time, the Stalker’s cloaking faltered and disappeared as it staggered to the side and fell to the ground. As I was preparing to leap to my feet to finish it off, another shape raced toward it, spear held high. A moment later, Sylens plunged the wicked, curved tip into the machine’s chest area, sending a shower of sparks into the air around him. The Stalker gave one last feeble attempt to swat at him, but quickly lay still as the red light faded from its eyes.  


In the sudden silence that followed the confrontation, I could hear my heart pounding strongly in my ears, while my breaths came in audibly ragged gasps. I lowered my bow, placing the arrow back in my quiver, before struggling to my feet. The pain all throughout my body from the initial toss from the back of the Strider was back in full force, pulling an involuntary groan from my lips. Sylens removed the tip of his spear from the Stalker and turned back toward me, heaving a heavy sigh.  


“Quite impressive for someone in your state,” he remarked, holding his spear loosely at his side.  


“I’ll take the backhanded compliment,” I called back, rolling my eyes.  


His head tilted to the side curiously as I sighed, replacing my bow over my shoulders.  


“So, we’re walking until we find another mount, it seems,” I continued, before he could say anything else.  


“That does appear to be our only option, yes.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise. Somebody was a little too absent from the story so far.


	21. The Enemy of My Enemy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Monday.
> 
> If you're still reading from the beginning, thanks for sticking around. It means the world to me.
> 
> I apologize for any errors/missed typos; I participated in Cinco de Mayo the American way but I have a schedule, so...

With a roll of my eyes, I turned from Sylens to the ground between the downed Strider and myself. It was relatively simple to recover most of the arrows that fallen from my quiver during the initial attack, although a few closer to the actual machine were too damaged to be of use, anymore. With a frown, I ripped the metal heads loose before tossing the wooden shafts, pocketing the pieces for later, perhaps; if I couldn’t make new arrows with them, I could try to sell them.  


“Satisfied?”  


I jumped at the sound of Sylens’ voice right beside me, but quickly regained my composure as I sighed, securing the pouch with my metal shards.  


“You’re not going to offer to carry me?”  


Actual confusion creased his face for a moment as I held back my laughter.  


“I do not see why I would offer to do such a thing.”  


“You know, it’s a long, hard walk for someone ‘in my condition.’”  


At the realization of my joke, he simply sighed and turned to begin walking, himself. With a smirk, I set after him, quickly falling in step beside him, despite the protests from my back and side at the quick pace; there was no way I would give him the satisfaction of knowing that I was in any sort of discomfort.  


Our walk continued in total silence as we pressed on through the dense foliage of the Jewel, sweat quickly forming across my brow and running down the side of my face in rivulets, quickly negating any feeling of drying out that had come about during the ride down from the cliff. I could just make out a similar sheen on Sylens’ skin form the faint moonlight that filtered through the canopy overhead, as well as the light blue light that shone from the strange cords laced into his skin. Come to think of it, I had only seen one tribe do that before…  


“ _Now is not the time to let your curiosity get the better of you._ ”  


Fair point.  


Our trek brought us past an odd structure on the edge of a small pond, and I found myself unable to take my eyes off it as we passed. It wasn’t like any of the Old Ones’ buildings, full of twisted, jagged metal and rust, but instead made of wood with signs that it had once been brightly painted. It was a good several yards tall, with the roof constructed in a strange, tiered pattern leading to a point at the top.  


“A shrine for the Utaru.”  


“Shrine to what?”  


“The dead, mostly,” Sylens replied, eying the structure, as well. “They use it as a point where they feel they are more easily able to commune with those who have died.”  


I nodded slowly, giving the structure one more look-over before focusing on the trail, once again. The Jewel at night almost seemed like an entirely different world than the rest of the Carja territory, or even the same region during the day. Machines still milled about amongst the trees, foliage, and ponds, but they also seemed much more lethargic than they did during the day. I even caught sight of another Stalker across one of the ponds, standing by a group of Striders completely uncloaked, but it didn’t seem to pay us any attention as we passed.  


A cloud of small, glowing insects flitted about over the trail ahead and I jumped as one suddenly landed on the tip of my nose. My hands instinctually reached up to bat it away, but paused just before actually reaching my face. I stared down at the small, glowing shape with a cross-eyed look, the small, glowing rear of the insect flickering rhythmically, although I couldn’t make out any exact details of its shape. A moment later, it flew away and I shook my head, rubbing the tip of my nose absentmindedly. My eyes flicked over to Sylens to find him simply waving away any of the insects that came too close to him.  


“ _Not exactly the ‘stop and smell the roses’ type._ ”  


Whatever that meant.  


Just as we passed the twentieth pond that I had debated diving into for a relief from the stifling, sticky heat, I caught sight of a change of scenery through the trees ahead: a large expanse of dark brown. My face contorted in confusion as I pressed ahead, my pace quickening slightly until I actually passed Sylens, who jumped as I brushed past his left arm. A moment later, I cleared the last of the trees from the thick, jungle-like Jewel and found myself standing at the edge of a large, flat expanse of ground that looked much more like the rest of the desert that made up the Sundom, although hints at the lush greenery behind us still remained, mainly a thin coating of grass the stretched at least a little ways ahead of us.  


What truly caught my eye, though, was what I had first thought to be nothing but a large expanse of brown, flat ground. Now that the foliage no longer obscured my view, I could see that it wasn’t exactly ground, but a set of sheer cliffs across a wide chasm. My eyes travelled down from the cliffs to what lay between myself and them to find a large, dark body of water. Although seemingly still, its shape looked much more like a river than a lake, with a winding, narrow passageway that continued off to my right, and widened into an larger, straighter path to my left.  


“Where are we?” I muttered, tapping my Focus and bringing the interface to life.  


“It is a large river that stretches into the Sundom from the South, almost evenly splitting the regular Carja and the Shadow Carja territories,” Sylens explained, suddenly appearing beside me and coming to a stop.  


I made a “huh” sound in response as I navigated through the Focus’s various functions until I came to the map. After a moment or two, the textured image appeared in the air before me. I scanned over it for a few moments before I located the small, triangular shape roughly halfway down it on the lefthand side. We were still incredibly close to the edge of the actually defined area of the map, with the land just a little ways farther along the water to my left fading into the dark, “unknown” section. When I tried to navigate into it, a message appeared in a rectangular box in the center of the interface.  


“Data missing. Please download additional files for this region.”  


Within the box, but below this message, it asked me to “visit” some kind of string of letters and symbols that looked like a string of words strung together with no spaces between them, only occasionally separated by dots, lines, and slashes.  


“What is it?”  


I jumped slightly at the sound of Sylens’ voice, glancing over toward him as I closed the Focus interface.  


“Nothing, just don’t think that holosite is up anymore to download anything.”  


He continued to stare back at me with a rather neutral expression as I suddenly froze in place, running the sentence I had just spoken through my mind over and over.  


What the hell had I just said to him?  


“ _Play it off. Quickly._ ”  


“Why the look?”  


He blinked rapidly for a few moments before shaking his head.  


“I don’t know what you mean…”  


“Exactly,” I shot back, placing my hands on my hips. “Careful, you almost showed an emotion, there.”  


His face finally contorted into annoyance and I couldn’t help smirking as he turned and began to walk down the sloping ground toward the water’s edge.  


“Follow.”  


“I didn’t realize this was a forced march.”  


Sylens suddenly spun around, stalking toward me much faster than I expected. As he reached me, one hand raised toward me and I began to throw my arms up to block him, he stopped a foot or two short, closing his open hand into a fist as he stared into my eyes with an anger I hadn’t seen from him before.  


“Sometimes,” he began, his voice quiet but controlled, “I lament the fact that the single, greatest connection to the world of the Old Ones, it seems, is through a child such as yourself.”  


My jaw began to clench even tighter as my own hands began to curl into fists, themselves.  


“I’m not a _child._ ”  


“Then stop acting like one!” he spat. “You do not seem to grasp your importance in the larger scope of the world—still—despite everything you have supposedly seen and experienced.”  


Before I could stop myself, I had stepped forward, closing the gap between us, my next words already at the tip of my tongue before I could even think about stopping them.  


“I know it perfectly well… enough that I am incredibly aware of how insignificant someone like you is to it all, and yet you hold yourself in such high regard. It was people like you who are the reason we’re here, right now, in this time.”  


Sylens continued to stare back at me with the same anger he had held since moving to attack me moments ago, but said nothing. Finally, I took a step to the side and shoved past him, knocking his shoulder back with my own as I passed. I had no idea where exactly I was going, but he had started walking toward the water below, so I continued in that direction, hoping that some path would make itself apparent as I went.  


The walk to the water below was longer than I first expected, but after ten minutes or so of walking in total silence, I had reached the bottom of the sloping ground and glanced along the sandy expanse of the shoreline. I didn’t know what I had expected to find, but as my eyes swept over a small, wooden boat a little ways off to my right, I paused, tilting my head slightly.  


There was no way that was just here by coincidence.  


I glanced over my shoulder to see Sylens still making his way toward me, but he was a fair distance away. Turning back to the small boat, I made my way over to it, placing my hands on the bow and leaning over it to see what was inside. A set of oars lay along one side, stretching almost the entire length of the boat, while a coil of rope lay just below me, tucked against the inside of the bow. Other than these items, however, it appeared to be entirely empty.  


“I mean, it’s probably just a means to get across the water, not anything fancy,” I muttered, leaning back from the boat and beginning to turn back toward where I knew Sylens should be soon approaching. “Is this—?”  


“Mine? One could say so.”  


Sylens was actually much closer than I had expected, but as soon as I turned around, he gave me a wide berth, moving around to the opposite side of the boat.  


“It is also our way across.”  


“What’s across?” I asked, nodding toward the far shore and cliffs.  


“The fastest route to Sunfall and the old Zero Dawn facility, now will you help push this into the water?”  


“I don’t know, should ‘someone in my condition’ be doing such heavy work?”  


Sylens shot me a reproachful glare and I couldn’t help but smirk before letting out a heavy sigh and positioning myself on the other side of the boat’s bow, bracing myself against it and placing my feet out behind me in preparation.  


“Now, push!”  


After several seconds of forcing my shoulder into the hard, wooden side of the boat with little to no progress, I began to wonder if this was either some elaborate joke, or it just wasn’t going to work, but before I could give up and launch another snarky quip at Sylens, the vessel lurched and began to slide forward slowly. Within moments, it had picked up speed, and several more steps later my feet began to splash in the small waves that broke on the sandy shoreline. I stopped pushing so hard and used the frame of the boat to help pull myself into a normal standing position, gritting my teeth against the burning pain that once again ran across my side and over my shoulder blades.  


“ _At this rate, that’s never going to go away._ ”  


“Climb in.”  


I glanced over to see Sylens wading alongside the side of the boat, seemingly not waiting for me to acknowledge or follow suit. Regardless, I moved around the opposite side and easily threw my leg over the side, crawling into the boat and carefully taking a seat on one of the narrow benches within as Sylens more slowly and clumsily made his way into the vessel. It swayed precariously for several moments before he took a seat, grasping the board on either side of him until the boat finally fell still, once again. With a heavy sigh, he released his deathgrip on the wooden seat and began to lift one of the oars from where he had presumably stashed them on his first trip here.  


“You’re not going to make me row?”  


He shot me a contemptuous look as he placed the oar in a small, metal loop on the edge of the boat beside him, angling it out of the water and holding it in place with one leg as he prepared the other oar.  


“We would not be moving anywhere quickly if I did that.”  


“ _Fucker._ ”  


As Sylens began to row, it became apparent that we weren’t actually going to be moving all that quickly, regardless, so I settled in for the trip to the opposite shore. Brief thoughts of Snapmaws or some other, yet unknown machine suddenly leaping from the water and swallowing the boat passed through my mind, but I quickly pushed them aside as I leaned forward and propped my elbows on my knees.  


“So, what’s your plan once we get to Sunfall?” I asked, playing with the nails of one hand as my gaze flicked between them and him.  


“We will infiltrate the structure that was previously the Zero Dawn facility, which is now located under the Sun Ring.”  


“Okay, and then what?”  


“We see what lies within.”  


I gave him an admonishing look, but Sylens remained true to his name as he continued to row us across the expanse of water. With a sigh, I clasped my hands between my knees and glanced around at the scenery that surrounded the expanse of water we were currently only a little over a third of the way across. The only sound breaking the stillness of the pre-dawn grey was the sound of the water splashing gently against the side of the boat, and the soft creaking of the wooden vessel as it rocked ever so slightly. No obvious signs of blue or yellow lights were immediately apparent on the shoreline ahead of us, although I did notice a flickering light atop one of the cliffs a fair distance off to the right. It looked like a small campfire, and there could have been a million reasons why someone would be out this far in the middle of nowhere besides us, but I still made a mental note before turning away.  


The rest of our trip continued in silence before we finally began to approach our destination. A patch of reeds blocked our direct path to the sandy beach, but Sylens simply pressed the boat on through them, using the oars to push off against the shallow ground until the boat came to a sudden, jerking halt.  


“We’re here,” he said, pulling the oars back inside the boat and stashing them along the side, once again.  


“You don’t say…”  


He gave me a look before rising to a standing position and carefully climbing out of the boat with a splash. I took that as my cue to do the same and followed suit on the opposite side of the vessel, immediately finding that the water was still about knee deep as I landed and made a face at the feeling of water filling my boots.  


“ _It’ll dry._ ”  


I had begun to forget what “dry” even felt like, at this point.  


As I went to grab the boat to pull it ashore, I noticed Sylens simply wading ahead, not stopping to help.  


“Am I supposed to drag this in all by myself?” I called after him.  


He glanced over his shoulder with his trademark look of annoyance.  


“We will not need it again.”  


I frowned slightly, glancing back at the boat beside me before sighing and following after him; something had told me he didn’t actually own it, so I suppose that more or less answered that. Once we were finally back on dry land, I sighed and took a seat on the sandy beach.  


“What are you doing?”  


“Give me a second,” I snapped, undoing the laces on my right boot and yanking it off.  


Immediately, a fair amount of water poured from the top as I made a face, trying to shake any remaining moisture free as I could. I spared a glance over at Sylens to see him standing impatiently nearby, his arms folded over his chest. Something compelled me to drag out the process of removing the other boot and emptying it, as well, and the act of actually tying them both back in place took even longer. Once both of my boots were firmly affixed to my feet, once again, I sighed and dragged myself to a standing position, brushing the sand off the back of my clothes before turning to Sylens and placing my hands on my hips.  


“Are you ready?” he drawled, his jaw clearly working tensely.  


“Ready.”  


Without another word, he turned and began to lead the way farther along the beach. We approached a section of the cliff face that I thought was just a small indentation in it, at first, but turned out to be a crevice that led farther into the rock. I paused at the entrance, even as Sylens pressed on, undeterred.  


“ _You could leave him here, try to find another way to Sunfall and beat him to it…_ ”  


He seemed to notice I had stopped a moment later, however, as he glanced over his shoulder before pausing, himself.  


“I have already told you, you will not be able to lose me before you reach Sunfall. I know exactly where it, and the entrance to Zero Dawn within it, are.”  


My teeth ground angrily as I remained where I was for a moment or two longer before finally giving in and stepping into the crevice, as well. As I approached Sylens, he remained still, until I came to a stop before him.  


“You going to lead the way, still?”  


“I think perhaps I should stay behind you, to make sure that you do not succumb to your injuries, again.”  


A thousand insults leapt to the front of my mind, many of them unfamiliar yet incredibly creative, but I was able to hold my tongue at the last second. With one last glare, I turned away from Sylens and began to head farther along the crevice. Soon after I had begun walking, again, I found that the ground seemed to be sloping upward. Another minute or so later, and I came to a short ledge blocking the path. The lip was just about the same height as my head, and it would normally have been an easy endeavor to climb over, but the pain that flared in my torso at the mere thought alone made me hesitate.  


“The journey not as easy as you anticipated?”  


This time it wasn’t Sylens’ voice that taunted me, but an all-too familiar one, all the same. My jaw clenched as I rubbed my palms against my skirt for a moment before gripping the top of the ledge and bracing one foot against the wall to my right. Before I could hesitate a moment longer, I pushed off with my leg as I pulled myself up with my arms at the same time. The pain that exploded across my back and side was excruciating, but I forced any cries of pain back down my throat before they could escape. I eventually managed to swing my legs up and over the ledge, rolling onto my back with a quiet groan as I squeezed my eyes closed for a moment before taking a deep breath and forcing them open, again.  


The young Elisabet stood over me, smirking and with her hands on her hips, dressed in the same, strange jacket and tan leggings that I had seen in the first dream at the campfire.  


“ _Not even like the real me._ ”  


The thought echoed about my head as I clenched my jaw and forced myself to my feet, resting against the rock wall beside me for a moment once I was upright. A moment later, Sylens hauled himself over the ledge with considerably less effort and strain than I had, which only fueled the slowly growing fire in my chest. Once he had risen to his feet in almost the exact spot where the image of the young Elisabet had been a moment ago, he gave me a smug look that immediately made me want to cut it off with the tip of my spear.  


“We are only partway to the top. Come on, now.”  


With a huff, I turned and stalked ahead, not checking to see if Sylens was following.  


The trail through the crevice only continued to grow steeper as we moved farther along. With each short climb up another ledge, or even a few points where we had to scale some hand- and footholds up sheer walls, the pain from my injuries, old and new, grew stronger. By the time I finally crested the top of the third or fourth completely vertical wall we had encountered, I let out an audible sound of relief at the sight of the open, flat ground at the top of the cliff that greeted me. I rolled onto my back off to one side and lay with my arms and legs spread across the ground, panting as I stared up at the indigo, pink, and orange sky.  


“Impressive.”  


I didn’t acknowledge the goading voice, but continued to focus on watching a pink cloud slowly drifting by overhead. Any distraction from the fire that burned through my body was a welcome one. A moment later, however, my view was obstructed by Sylens’ face as he stood over me.  


“Come, I have stashed some supplies nearby and we can rest there.”  


“Supplies?” I rasped.  


“It would be unwise to enter Sunfall unprepared, both mentally and physically.”  


With a sigh, I began to pull myself to my feet. Sylens didn’t offer a hand, but I wouldn’t have taken it if he had, anyway. After several unsteady moments, I finally managed to center my balance and took a long, deep breath in through my nose.  


“Let’s go.”  


Sylens led the way, once again, as we moved away from the cliffs and the water toward a large rock formation that glowed a brilliant orange at its top, where the first rays of the sunrise had begun to hit it. By the time we reached the base, the sunlight had descended roughly halfway down its height, and the sky overhead had transitioned from the brilliant collage of colors of sunrise to its more typical daytime blue with a few, wispy white clouds scattered across it.  


As soon as the sun reached the base of the rock formation, and consequentially us, the temperature began to increase rapidly. It only took a few more minutes for the sweat to begin to run down the sides of my face and down my back, underneath my tunic. Luckily, it wasn’t long before Sylens took a turn into what appeared to be a small cave carved into the rock face beside us. The overhanging entrance created at least some shade within the small space, and I quickly moved out of the harsh sunlight, falling into a seated position against the back wall with a sigh.  


“We will wait until closer to midday to approach Sunfall.”  


My face contorted in confusion.  


“Why the middle of the day? If we’re trying not to be noticed, broad daylight isn’t the best way to hide.”  


“We will ‘hide in plain sight,’ as an old saying goes.”  


“ _I didn’t think it was possible to make that sound pretentious, but…_ ”  


“That’s your best plan?”  


“Did you have another suggestion?” he shot back, crouching beside a small, wooden chest that I hadn’t noticed before. “The Eclipse’s focus network is down, so they will not necessarily be on the lookout for you, as they may not be aware of your assault on their camp.”  


“You don’t think the fact that it isn’t working isn’t a cause to be concerned, for them?”  


Sylens paused for a moment, chewing the inside of his cheek before nodding slowly.  


“You make a good point.”  


“Gee, thanks.”  


“It may benefit us to employ some element of disguise.”  


“And how do you plan on doing that?”  


He didn’t answer immediately, but reached into a pouch affixed to his belt, rummaging inside it for a moment before producing a key. It fit easily into the lock on the chest and he opened it easily with a quick twist. As he pushed the lid open, he pocketed the key, once again. I couldn’t see what was inside from my position, but multiple items made clinking sounds, both metallic and something like glass, as he rummaged about. Finally, he pulled what looked like a large, dark piece of cloth free and stared at it for a few moments before turning and tossing it in my direction. I quickly reached up and caught it out of the air, unfurling it with a frown of confusion.  


“What is this?”  


“A cloak. Your disguise.”  


“Just this?” I shot back, raising my eyebrows as I turned from the dark piece of cloth to him.  


“Your most recognizable feature is your hair,” he explained. “There are not many people in the Sundom, let alone any of the nearby regions, with such an appearance. If it is covered, it will certainly take longer for any Eclipse on the lookout to notice you.”  


I hated to admit it, but his reasoning did make some amount of sense. I couldn’t recall meeting anyone else with such a distinguishable hair color, either among the Nora or any of the tribes I had met since leaving the Embrace.  


“So what about you?”  


“I have another cloak.”  


“So… your big plan is we both wear cloaks that cover our heads and just walk right in?”  


“We do not have to keep the disguise up for long; we only need to remain undetected long enough to get into the facility.”  


“And do you think that everyone in Sunfall is going to be incredibly unobservant, especially guards who suddenly had their Focus network disappear?”  


He stared back at me with a hard look as he folded his own cloak neatly into a square and took a seat against the far wall, placing it in his lap as he did.  


“What was your original plan of action?”  


As I went to fire back at his goading, I suddenly found my words frozen in my throat. I hadn’t consciously been thinking about my plan for entering Sunfall, but at his words, the realization that one had been in place in the back of my mind came over me, and it nearly sent a chill down my spine.  


“ _Get inside, and if anyone tries to stop me: kill them._ ”  


That… that couldn’t be my only idea. It… no. It made perfect sense.  


“ _They would have no hesitation in killing you._ ”  


They had more than shown that so far.  


“ _So it’s only fair._ ”  


Fair didn’t seem like the right word.  


“ _You can only be the bigger person for so long._ ”  


What?  


“I’m waiting.”  


The sound of Sylens’ voice brought me out of my thoughts, prompting me to shake my head quickly, clearing my throat before focusing on him, once again.  


“I’d figure it out as I went.”  


“That is not a plan.”  


“It’s worked for me so far.”  


With a sigh, Sylens shook his head before leaning it back against the rocky wall behind him.  


“Luck is not a sustainable resource.”  


I didn’t want to indulge him with a response, or an argument, so I simply remained silent, staring at the dark cloak in my hands and turning the fabric over slowly. The thought from moments ago was still racing through my mind, but other than the fact that my mind could so casually resort to killing others, the thing that made my heart race the most was how I couldn’t figure out where it had come from. It was most definitely not something I had consciously thought about, but… it felt like I had.  


“Get any rest you wish to before we set out for Sunfall. It is not a terribly long walk, but with what comes after… well, I don’t need to tell you that we are venturing into the unknown.”  


I nodded slightly, but otherwise didn’t respond to Sylens.  


Could I even sleep right then?  


“ _You might as well try._ ”  


My eyes flicked over to Sylens to see him in the same seated position as before, however his eyes were now closed.  


“ _On second thought…_ ”  


I could leave right then.  


“ _Could you outrun him right now?_ ”  


If I couldn’t, I could kill him.  


Wait.  


What?  


“ _You need to make a choice._ ”  


Why? Why do I have to make a choice like that _right now?_  


“ _It’s too important to not act._ ”  


What is? What had changed in the past day?  


“ _HADES knows you are alive and actively seeking to stop it. You advanced the timeline._ ”  


No, _we_ did that.  


“ _What’s the difference?_ ”  


I suddenly realized that I had been twisting the cloak in my hands into a tight rope and I took a slow, deep breath, releasing the fabric and allowing it to slowly unwind until it hung in a loose sheet from my grasp, once again.  


“ _So what are_ we going to do?”  


My jaw clenched tightly as I stared blankly ahead.  


The answer was clear and at the forefront of my mind, all I needed to do was acknowledge it.  


“ _You said it already…_ ”  


I’ll figure it out as I go.  


With a wary eye on Sylens, I carefully began to get to my feet, taking extra care to prevent the various pieces of loose metal about my person from jingling too loudly. Once I was standing, I began to tiptoe toward the entrance to the hideaway. As soon as I stepped back into the sunlight, I could feel the sweat beginning to run again, but I tried to ignore it as I glanced both ways along the rock formation. I suddenly realized that although we had come this way so far, I didn’t actually know if Sunfall was farther in the same direction. With one more quick glance back toward Sylens, I slipped to the side and out of the entrance to the shallow cave.  


The Focus interface came to life around me with a familiar chime in my ear. Within moments, I was staring at the map function, once again, and trying to judge my position compared to the location of the marker for Sunfall.  


“So… keep going that way,” I muttered under my breath, nodding curtly before reaching up to deactivate the Focus.  


Just as I did, however, something appeared over my mouth and nose and I jumped in surprise. A strong grip appeared around my shoulders, holding me still, as I tried to pull away from the obstruction, but it was only pressed harder into my face. A strange, acrid scent filled my mouth and nostrils as I tried to twist my head to either side, but the object remained firmly in place. After a few moments, I became aware of a strange numbness in my extremities, which quickly began to spread up my arms and legs. Within moments, my knees buckled and I began to fall, but the grip around my shoulders slowed my descent.  


The edges of my vision were growing dark as my efforts to break free grew weaker and weaker, until all motion felt like a monumental amount of energy, which I simply didn’t have. Finally, as my body fell still, my head lolled to one side and I caught sight of exactly what had attacked me.  


“I do apologize, but as you can see… this proved necessary.”  


Sylens’ face began to blur and distort as my eyelids sank lower and lower, until finally they crashed together and immediately became glued shut.  


All sound and feeling went with my vision, moments later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know how else to end a chapter, apparently. I'm sorry.
> 
> Stay tuned.


	22. Enemy of the Sun

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Monday, y'all.
> 
> This one's a mammoth chapter (like twice as long as most of them).
> 
> Shit's about to go down.
> 
> Enjoy.

The darkness I found myself in was not unlike what I had experienced after the fall from the Eclipse camp, but this time there were no confrontations with look-alikes or friendly faces, just darkness. Also unlike the previous instance, it seemed to drag on for what could have been an hour or more, until I finally became aware of vague sounds around me. It sounded almost like rushing water, and for a moment I began to question if the entire journey with Sylens had actually been another “dream” after I had fallen, but as it grew louder, I began to pick out individual strands that sounded like voices. All at once, the full volume of my surroundings came rushing back to me and I jumped in surprise at the explosion of noise.  


My eyes shot open to reveal nothing but a bright light, so I quickly began to blink, desperately hoping that it would pass. Thankfully, it began to darken until I could make out my environment, once again, but what I found did nothing to lessen my confusion or lower my heart rate. Multiple rows of tents were pitched around me, with people of all ages and appearances milling about them. Several children close by were watching me warily as I continued to look around, my head feeling heavier than normal and my vision streaking slightly as I turned it.  


I tried to reach up to wipe my hand over my eyes, but something rough and strong dug into my wrists and stopped me. My heart began to beat even faster as I looked down at my lap to find a thick section of rope binding my hands together at the wrists. Just past them, I could see that my ankles were bound in a similar fashion, preventing me from doing anything but wriggle in place.  


My breath began to come in short, rasping pants as I looked up from my restraints, scanning the area nearby for something to cut them loose. As I did, however, my gaze fell on a pair of legs almost directly in front of me and I froze. My gaze travelled up them until it came to rest on the face hidden within the hooded cloak that wrapped the figure’s frame.  


“I was beginning to worry,” Sylens said. “I did not expect the effects to last this long.”  


“You fucker!” I growled, pulling at my restraints, but the ropes didn’t budge. “What did you do to me?!”  


“I apologize, once again,” he sighed, crouching before me, but conveniently out of reach of my feet. “I had hoped to not have to resort to such measures, but I did warn you.”  


Before he could continue, I conjured up as much saliva in my dry mouth as I could and spit it at him. The projectile fell just short of my intended target of his face, but still landed on the top of his boot. He looked down at it for a moment before sighing and looking back up at me.  


“Believe me, if I could enter Zero Dawn without you, I would gladly do so,” he continued. “Unfortunately, that does not seem possible.”  


“There’s no way I’m letting you in there,” I said. “Especially not now.”  


“You don’t have a choice.”  


“Says who?”  


Sylens suddenly reached inside his cloak, producing a rather large dagger, the blade well cleaned and sharpened.  


“I would greatly prefer not to use this, but I will, if provoked,” he explained. “Are you willing to die to prevent me from simply entering the facility?”  


My jaw worked tensely as I held back the flurry of insults I wanted to hurl at him, but I knew none of them would be of any use. I didn’t exactly know if the locks would open just based on the presence of my body, alone, but I didn’t particularly want to bet on it.  


“ _What good would any of what you’ve done so far be if you died right now, and no one was able to get the subfunctions back?_ ”  


I hated when reason didn’t line up with what I wanted.  


“Where am I?” I finally asked, shifting my gaze to the tents and flurry of people moving about them over his shoulder.  


“We are just outside of Sunfall,” he said, sliding the blade back into his cloak. “This is where the—less fortunate—live.”  


“In tents outside of the city’s walls?”  


“You of all people should understand how ‘outsiders’ are treated,” he shot back. “The Eclipse may be a radical section of the Shadow Carja, but in many ways they are not all that different.”  


My eyes lingered on a mother with her young child just inside the entrance to a tent off to my left as Sylens spoke. They were both dressed in what I could only think to call rags, and I couldn’t tell if their skin was actually darker, or if the dirt and grime was just so set in that it appeared that way.  


I was certainly beginning to see why Avad had made the decision to rise up against his father, if this is how things were before.  


“So what’s your brilliant plan from here?” I sighed, turning back to Sylens.  


“The same as before. In disguise, we enter the city as normal, and proceed to the old entrance to the Zero Dawn facility.”  


“And no one’s going to wonder about the bound girl you’re dragging through the streets?”  


“I will remove the restraints on your feet, and they will simply assume you are a criminal or a slave I have brought in.”  


My jaw clenched, yet again, so tightly that I began to feel pain in my teeth, but Sylens didn’t seem to notice as he removed the knife from within his cloak, once again.  


“So… shall we?”  


I continued to glare at him in silence for several moments before he sighed and removed the blade from its sheath. The metal shone in the sun as he placed it inside the loop of rope around my ankles. In only a few short motions, he had removed the restraints and tossed them aside. I shifted my position slightly, squirming at the prickling sensation that began to appear in my feet as the blood rushed back to them all at once.  


“Now, on your feet.”  


My grimace quickly turned into a glare as I stared back at Sylens’ impatient expression. After several long seconds, though, I pulled my feet in toward me and tried to figure out how to get myself in a position to stand. When I had tried shifting the positioning of my legs several times with no success, Sylens sighed and rolled his eyes before reaching down and grabbing me by the upper arm. With a sharp tug that sent pain flaring throughout my side, he yanked me to my feet and dropped me in place, leaving me to stagger for a moment or two before I regained my footing. It was shockingly difficult to hold my balance with both hands tied in front of me, but at least I didn’t fall to the ground, once again.  


Now that I was standing, he stepped forward, once again, and pulled the hood of the cloak he had dressed me in over my head. The tip hung in front of my face slightly, partially obscuring my vision above a certain point. I had to turn my whole body to look over at him, but as I did, I found him also with the hood on his cloak raised.  


“Let’s go.”  


Before I had a chance to say anything else, Sylens grabbed my arm, yet again, and began to drag me forward. I stumbled slightly at first, but managed to remain on my feet as he led me through the winding rows of tents. After so many turns that I was certain I had lost track of our path, we suddenly found ourselves on a stone pathway that sloped upward as it curved to the right.  


It was harder than I expected to accurately judge the incline and keep my balance with nearly the entire upper half of my vision obscured, but I supposed it at least added to the illusion that I was actually Sylens’ prisoner of some sort. Just as I was beginning to wonder if this ramp stretched on forever, the armored feet and shins of several Shadow Carja guards appeared before me. My body instantly tensed, but Sylens simply pulled me onward without stopping. No shouting ensued and no other hands grabbed hold of me to try to stop us, so I assumed we were successful when the guards disappeared from view and the volume of voices around us increased greatly.  


“It’s busier today than I expected,” Sylens muttered.  


“Is that good or bad?” I shot back.  


“We shall see.”  


I rolled my eyes as we continued to trudge onward, just enough of my vision clear so I could avoid outright running into other people.  


“So tell me,” I began, turning myself slightly toward where I still felt Sylens’ grip on my upper arm, “why are you disguised, too? If they don’t know it’s me, why does it matter if they see you?”  


“It’s a long story,” he replied, “but let’s just say, the Eclipse and I did not end on good terms.”  


Something about what he had just said prompted me to come to a sudden halt. Sylens attempted to pull me forward, but I twisted my shoulder so that he was forced to stop, as well. I stared blankly at the ground before me for several moments as his last sentence echoed throughout my head.  


“ _…the Eclipse and I did not end on good terms._ ”  


That implied there was a time when they were. Right?  


“What are you doing?” Sylens hissed, stepping closer to me.  


I slowly lifted my head so that I could see him more clearly, the hood over my head shifting backward slightly as I did.  


“What do you mean by ‘ended’?” I said quietly.  


“What?”  


“You _ended_ on bad terms… were you on good terms before that?”  


“Al—” he began, but caught himself at the last second, glancing around at the crowd surrounding us before moving even closer to me. “Now is not the time.”  


Just then, the full realization of what he had said hit me.  


It seemed so obvious, now.  


“You used to be in with the Eclipse,” I said quietly, almost as if in a trance.  


“I serve no purpose other than my own,” he spat.  


“But?”  


“But—” he shot back, glaring back at me from under his own hood, “I may have helped them, before.”  


My hands clenched into fists as I shifted them against the rope restraints. Every part of me wanted to reach up and wrap my fingers around his throat, watch the disapproving look go slack as the light faded from his eyes…  


“You were an Eclipse. Is that why you brought me here?”  


“I brought you here to get through that door,” he shot back.  


“But after, you were just going to hand me over, right?”  


“What purpose would that serve?”  


“You would have what you wanted. What purpose would I serve after that?”  


“A great one, in actuality,” he said, glancing around, once again, before reaching into his cloak. “Now let’s get moving. Time is of the essence.”  


“What did you do for the Eclipse?”  


“Aloy, I have already told you, now is not—”  


“I’m not going any further with you, Sylens, until you tell me!” I shouted.  


He physically cringed at the volume of my voice, but this time I noticed several people nearby looking at us, pausing for a moment to ponder the two hooded figures now clearly having an argument in the middle of the street.  


“Will you please stop acting like a petulant child, and—”  


“Hey, is there a problem, here?”  


I whirled to my left to find two Shadow Carja guards approaching us, lances held at their sides.  


“Nothing, I was simply bringing my charge to the court.”  


“You’re a bounty hunter?”  


“Yes, and I must be going—”  


Sylens tried to drag me along, but I resisted, pulling back with as much strength as I could. It was enough to throw him off balance, however, and he staggered forward into me. His weight was more than I expected and I began to fall backward. I just managed to turn out from under Sylens and regain my footing, but in the process, the hood of my cloak fell back around my shoulders.  


“Wait… it’s her!”  


I shook my head to clear some of my hair out of my face as I turned back toward the two Shadow Carja guards to see one of them pointing at me, a look somewhere between shock and surprise on his face.  


“It’s the Nora girl!”  


I whirled back toward Sylens to see him standing a foot or so behind me, his hood still in place. He glanced between me and the guards for a moment before letting out a growl of anger and taking off in the opposite direction. The sounds of the guards’ clinking armor from behind me was enough to motivate me to take off in the same direction, chasing after the flowing tail of the cloak that represented Sylens.  


Immediately, the guards behind me began to yell, presumably attempting to draw the attention of others. It seemed to work, though, as more guards up ahead began to look around for the source of the commotion. At the sight of me sprinting through the crowded street, however, they rushed to block my path, shoving other citizens out of the way. Sylens managed to slip past one set of guards just before they stood squarely in the center of the street, their weapons raised and pointed toward me.  


I swore under my breath as I swerved to the right, dodging around several merchant stands and looking for another way through that would take me in the same direction Sylens had gone, but no paths immediately presented themselves. Instead, I quickly found myself at a wall of stone that marked a dead end. My boots skidded on the stone floor for a moment before I finally came to a stop.  


My heart was pounding in my ears as I whirled in place, looking for a door I had missed, or a way to cut through the towering buildings on either side of me, but nothing presented itself as an immediately obvious way through. Finally, I turned to face back down the way I had come to find several guards approaching me slowly, their weapons held at the ready.  


“Nowhere to go, savage,” one of them spat.  


My wrists rubbed against the rope restraints, once again, as I tried in vain to get at least one loose, but Sylens had tied them too securely.  


“ _No, this can’t be it. Not in some back alley in Sunfall._ ”  


Sure looked like it would be.  


The guards were now almost close enough to touch me with the tips of their lances, when a voice calling out from behind them brought them to a halt.  


“Do not touch her!”  


My gaze drifted past the tips of the weapons to the faces of the guards before finally settling on the figure who had spoken behind them. A man in elaborate, black and red robes with a rather sizeable and ridiculous headpiece stood in the middle of the alleyway, an entourage of guards surrounding him, as well.  


“Helis requests that she be brought to the Sun Ring for judgement!”  


“Does he, now…?” I breathed, returning my attention back to the guards immediately before me.  


Several of them looked dissatisfied with the turn of events, but none of them moved closer.  


“Bring the Nora savage and let the Sun decide her fate!”  


Several of the guards glanced between each other before two of them elbowed the third forward. He glanced around apprehensively before raising his lance and walking slowly closer to me. I watched him approach until he was only a foot or two away, his weapon held in both hands, although the tip was not directly pointed at me. He began to reach toward the rope restraints on my hands, and as soon as his fingers wrapped around them, I yanked him forward, driving my knee up at the same time; I felt it collide with some part of him and he immediately let out a cry of pain and staggered to the side, his grip loosening on the rope around my wrists. I took the moment to rip my hands free of his grip and raise them both over my head, quickly bringing them down on the back of his neck. The guard tumbled forward onto the ground with a crash of armor and the sound of the wooden handle of his lance bouncing on the hard, stone surface.  


Almost immediately, I felt something crash into me from the side, and a moment later, something hit me on the back of the head with a good deal of force. Almost immediately my vision dimmed and I staggered forward. My feet caught on the guard I had knocked down a moment ago and I tumbled forward. With my hands tied before me, it was almost impossible to break my fall, so my right shoulder slammed into the stone ground with the full weight of my body behind it and I went to let out a cry of pain, but the air seemed to suddenly disappear from my lungs and I was left gasping as I tried to change my position on the ground. Every breath brought the darkness dangerously close to enveloping the entirety of my vision, and it took all of my focus and strength to stop myself from allowing myself to succumb to unconsciousness, once again.  


At some point, I realized that I was no longer lying on the ground, but was instead moving past crowds of gawking people, but I didn’t feel my legs working as they should. As my head hung forward, I realized that they were trailing behind me, and I was being dragged by two of the Shadow Carja guards who had cornered me a minute ago. I tried to lift my head, once again, but the darkness at the edges of my vision rushed in toward the center, only allowing me to see a small circle of the stone pathway ahead of me.  


“ _Don’t give in now._ ”  


I let my head fall forward, again, and my vision slowly began to clear, but almost immediately, a voice from up ahead prompted me to try to whip my head up. This proved to be the wrong move, as my vision instantly went dark and I felt the strength disappear from my limbs. Unlike after whatever Sylens had done to me, however, this time I felt my strength returning in what felt like seconds, rather than minutes or hours. As it did, I desperately tried to open my eyes, but they seemed to be glued shut, for the time being.  


Once I had decided that was a lost cause for the moment, I tried to focus on what I could comprehend. A howling wind seemed to rush about me, but I oddly didn’t feel cold; if anything, I could feel the sweat running freely down the sides of my face and my neck.  


Wait.  


It wasn’t wind.  


It was voices.  


Hundreds of screaming, cheering voices combining to form such chaos that no single one was distinguishable from the others. I tried to wrack my brain for why I would be in a place with so many people, when hazy memories of the moments before I attacked the guard began to come back to me.  


“ _…to the Sun Ring…_ ”  


Of course. They had all come to watch the enemy of their “god” die.  


Somehow.  


Despite hearing from numerous people about the Red Raids and the Sun Ring, I found that I actually had no idea how exactly people died in it. The name would seem to imply that one would be left out to die in the sun for days on end, but that didn’t exactly seem exciting enough to warrant a huge, cheering crowd.  


Something told me it must be much more violent.  


Finally, I summoned the strength to try to open my eyes, once again, and I found that I actually made progress. They begrudgingly parted, allowing a thin strip of light through, before closing again. I redoubled my efforts, and this time I managed to get them halfway open, allowing me to take in the vague shape of something brown and something red before me. The third try, however, was the most successful, as I was finally able to open them nearly all the way, revealing that the brown item I had seen a moment ago was actually my legs. Several slow blinks later, and the red item came into focus, revealing rust-colored metal bars that seemed to wrap around to either side of me.  


My eyes lazily travelled along the metal bars, just barely taking in the sight of motion in the distance, but my vision continued to cycle in and out of focus, making it impossible to make out any individual features of what I assumed must be the crowd gathered to watch my execution. With a groan, I began to stir, working against the stiffness that defiantly clung to my limbs. As I did, however, I realized that one of the moving shapes was different than the others and my gaze drifted back to it, only for my entire body to freeze stiff, my breath catching in my chest.  


“My entire life, I’ve always known one thing with prophetic certainty: that I was destined for glory as a great champion of the sun.”  


The image of Helis slowly walking down a long gangplank toward whatever cage they had put me in seemed to fill the entirety of my vision, the sights and sounds of the crowd around me dropping away for a moment.  


“ _He’s on the other side of those bars, he can’t grab you like before._ ”  


“Even when Jiran was murdered, even when Meridian fell, I never doubted my destiny…”  


I finally managed to tear my gaze away from him to look down at the floor beneath me, only to blink in confusion when I saw both a pattern of metal and what appeared to be dirt beneath it. It took me another moment or two to realize that the dirt was not immediately below me, but actually around twenty or thirty feet away.  


“ _Okay, that’s worse._ ”  


No shit.  


“…until you came along.”  


Helis continued his speech, but my attention had suddenly shifted to a wooden crate on the walkway just outside the cage. A small, shining piece of metal rested on the top, a small portion in the center glowing bright blue. My hand instantly shot up to my right ear, but I found nothing but my hair and the skin at my temple beneath my fingertips.  


Of course.  


On the other side of the box lay another familiar sight: my bow and spear, along with the armor-infused tunic and skirt I had worn into Sunfall. Oddly enough, though, the cloak Sylens had dressed me in was missing. Wasn’t like I was going to miss it, anyway.  


“When I heard you had—survived—a doubt took root in my mind,” Helis continued, now drawing rather close to the platform my cage rested on.  


Taking a deep breath, I threw myself across the small, enclosed space and thrust my arm threw the metal bars, desperately reaching for the Focus, the spear, anything, but my outstretched fingers came nowhere near them. A moment later, a pair of legs appeared between them and me, and I quickly pulled my arm back through the bars, falling onto my backside as I pushed myself away from the hulking form of Helis.  


“As sure as the sun rises and falls each day, those I am bade to kill, die… and yet, I failed. How? Why?”  


My jaw clenched as I stared up at the gaudy armor and the chiseled face with, to my amusement, the three red lines that still marred its right cheek.  


“With each dig site you attacked, each loyal soldier you killed… this pestering doubt grew…”  


He wasn’t the first person to tell me something similar.  


“I kept thinking of the moment my knife pierced your throat,” he continued, his words immediately sending a shiver down my spine and igniting a burning feeling across the base of my throat that took a large amount of willpower not to touch. “One twist—a simple tug of the blade—and you would’ve bled out.”  


As he spoke, he drew the same wicked, curved blade form a sheath at his waist and ran it through the air, as if to demonstrate his point. He paused for a moment afterward, staring vacantly at the tip of his blade before turning his gaze down to me.  


“In a slaughter, I am a practiced hand. So why hesitate? Why fail my destined purpose?”  


The heat from the scar on my neck seemed to flow up and into my face as I scrabbled to my feet, fists clenching at my sides almost instantly, yet I kept at least some distance between myself and Helis.  


“You see that scar on your face? You didn’t get to finish.”  


“Ah, yes, I remember. He fought well… for a savage.”  


“His name was Rost,” I spat, taking an aggressive step forward and slamming one fist against the metal bars of the cage, “and he was a better man than you could ever hope to be.”  


“The better man is the one who doesn’t end up with his guts steaming on the ground.”  


The heat in my face erupted into an outright inferno that ripped through my entire body as I let out a cry of rage, kicking out at the metal bars, as well. Helis barely even flinched, but I caught a hint of a smirk tugging at his lips. A moment later, I spit between the bars in his general direction, but my mouth was so dry that it barely amounted to anything significant that hit him. With a casual glance at his arm, he wiped the small flecks of saliva away with the side of his blade before wiping it on the edge of his tunic.  


“No, it wasn’t him,” he continued, seemingly undeterred. “I could have finished you before he attacked… but I didn’t.”  


Helis made a large gesture of sliding his knife back in its sheath, drawing it out to at least twice as long as was necessary.  


“This… failing… troubled my thoughts—haunted every step…”  


He began to pace along the side of the cage, once again, keeping his head turned toward me as he did, his oddly light-colored eyes firmly fixed on mine.  


“It was only when I heard the commotion and saw you on the streets of Sunfall, itself, that I finally glimpsed the Sun’s design etched at length across the course of events. You were meant to survive that day, meant to kill my men, meant to destroy our network, and meant to show up on my very doorstep… so that you might be here—right now—to die as a sacrificial offering to the sun.”  


He gestured broadly to the brilliant, early afternoon light overhead before turning his gaze back down to me as he came to a stop, stepping right up to the bars of the cage.  


“Everything as it was meant to be. Predestined, and preordained.”  


“You’re no leader, no champion,” I spat, clenching my hands into fists. “You’re a puppet, with HADES yanking the strings.”  


Despite my better judgement, I found myself slowly stepping toward Helis, my gaze matching his unwaveringly.  


“It’s an ancient machine, not some ancient Carja myth,” I continued. “It doesn’t care about you or your people… it doesn’t care about Meridian… it just wants everyone and everything dead, and you—are its dutiful slave.”  


By the end of my tirade, I was standing only a foot or two away from the man who had so easily held me aloft by my throat with only one hand, yet I found no fear in my chest, only fire as I leaned in even closer, speaking in a hushed, but forceful tone.  


“Dance, monkey, dance.”  


Helis suddenly jerked forward, banging against the bars of the cage and prompting me to flinch slightly, which only seemed to amuse him.  


“I serve not the Buried Shadow,” he continued, “but the Sun in Shadow. All halves of nature joined to one cause, Shadow to Sun, Dark to Light.”  


“That’s the most ridiculous shit I’ve ever heard,” I spat, the words leaping to the tip of my tongue seemingly of their own accord. “Do you even listen to yourself speak?”  


“You do not—”  


“You’ve gone from serving an insane, homicidal king, to an insane, homicidal machine—tell me that doesn’t sound more pathetic than I think it does.”  


He remained silent for several moments before letting out a quiet laugh, nodding as he did.  


“I’ll remember those words,” he began, “as I watch your corpse burn—whatever’s left of it.”  


I rolled my eyes as he began to pace back toward the gangway he had entered from, his gait casual, as if he wasn’t standing in the middle of an arena surrounded by thousands of screaming citizens demanding the death of a girl they didn’t even know.  


“You fail to grasp the point,” he sighed. “As surely as you’ve been conquered, so has all doubt. With certainty of belief… comes unstoppable force.”  


I rushed forward suddenly, banging my hands against the inside of the cage to the dull thunk of the bars shaking in place, yet refusing to give way.  


“Then open this cage and put your fucking faith to the test.”  


“The circle has closed. Every element is in its proper place—exactly where it belongs.”  


He finally came to a stop just before the box that held my possessions, turning to face me fully, once again.  


“The errant beast, now caged, will serve her true purpose: a sacrificial animal.”  


My jaw clenched tightly as my fingers gripped the bars of the cage, my knuckles turning white.  


“Ah, speaking of sacrifice…” Helis continued, letting out a short laugh, “I forgot to tell you.”  


A sinking feeling appeared in my stomach, but I tried my best to hold my strong composure. There was no way I could give him the satisfaction of knowing he had affected me, at all.  


“After you crashed our network, I sent messengers into the east… to rally the forces there and mount an invasion of the ‘Sacred Land.’”  


The sinking feeling finally came to an abrupt halt, but it was only stopped by the knot that had suddenly formed in my stomach. Nausea rose in my throat as I felt my grip on the metal bars begin to falter slightly, but I quickly forced the strength back into my fingers so Helis couldn’t gain satisfaction from my reaction so easily.  


“I ordered every Nora killed… hoping to catch you there. Alas, that seems to have been… unnecessary,” he continued, not giving any hint that he had picked up on my body language.  


“Yeah, it is,” I spat. “Slaughtering an entire group of people for no gain, no reason? I don’t see a point.”  


“And one could argue that there is none,” he said, a slight smirk appearing on his features, once again, “and they’d be right. It seems like a monumental waste of effort… and I’m not even there to enjoy it.”  


A moment later, his face fell as he sighed, shrugging casually as he did.  


“Regardless—I couldn’t recall the order, even if I wished to.”  


He began to move closer to the cage and I found that the urge to shrink away no longer forced me away from the bars, but instead I remained rooted to the spot, glaring directly into his predatory gaze.  


“Thanks to you—communication over distances is impossible. You not only doomed yourself, but an entire tribe. Is the scorching judgement of the sun not obvious in these events? It’s like… history repeats.”  


His last sentence sent a chill over my entire body, like a bucket of river water from the mountains had been dumped over my head. It was not only the way the last sentence struck a nerve deep within me, but the tone in which it had been said. A blink later, and Helis seemed to have been replaced by another man, this one much less muscular and intimidating, but no less deserving of the burning hatred that tried to burn through the icy feeling from a moment ago.  


“You just keep killing everyone,” Ted continued, coming to a stop only inches from the bars of the cage, “and every time you think you’re doing what’s best. Tell me: how much blood do you need on your hands to make you see it?”  


Just then, the image of Ted lunged forward, grabbing my right wrist and yanking it through the opening in the bars. My breath caught in my throat at how real the grip felt, and I struggled against it, but to no avail. As I watched, the skin in the center of my palm slowly began to turn a dark vermilion, starting initially as a small dot but quickly spreading outward. Within seconds, my entire hand seemed to be coated in a thick layer of the red liquid, drops beginning to fall from where it spilled over the edges of my palm and between my fingers.  


“The last good idea you had was when you walked out of GAIA Prime,” the image of Ted continued, but my eyes were still firmly locked on my hand, watching the ever-growing pool of blood spill faster and faster onto the ground below “when you decided to just lay down and die.”  


I tried to pull my hand free, once again, but the grip on my wrist only grew tighter, eventually drawing a small whimper from me at the excruciating pain that was now radiating from it.  


“You had your chance… and you should have never had another.”  


A moment later, the grip disappeared and I pulled my arm back, only to find myself staggering away from the bars of the cage, a somewhat confused, yet amused, Helis standing on the other side, turning something over in his fingers.  


“Am I boring you, girl?” he taunted.  


“You already did that a long time ago,” I shot back, absentmindedly rubbing at my wrist as I glanced down at my hand, but there was no signs of the blood or any marks from someone grabbing me.  


“Well, I promise that won’t last much longer,” he continued, laughing softly before holding up the object he had been playing with. “Such a powerful device you have… no?”  


My eyes immediately caught sight of the metallic glint of the Focus under the rays of the sun and I froze in place, one hand still clutching the other wrist.  


“And yet, it’s… so… fragile.”  


With that, he curled his fist around the device and I heard the sound of the small pieces inside it snapping, along with the dying whine of its interface as it was crushed. Helis let out a sigh as he dropped the broken pieces over the edge of the platform before moving even closer to the bars of the cage, tilting his head back and forth slightly, as he did.  


“So you see, this time… I did not hesitate.”  


A small smirk tugged at his lips before he began to turn away, moving toward the walkway that led back toward the structure on the outside of the former orbital launch center.  


“The knife has already been twisted.”  


As he retreated up the narrow, wooden path, I let out a growl of frustration, banging my fists against the metal cage, once again, before pacing about the small enclosure, running my hands through my hair.  


“I would kill to be able to put a bullet through his head…”  


The words had appeared on my lips seemingly out of thin air, once again, but I couldn’t argue the validity. A bullet, a knife, a spear, a rock, a sharpened stick… anything would do.  


I didn’t have to wait long to find out how he planned to use me as his “sacrificial animal,” as a large gate on one side of the ring structure slid open, revealing a group of Shadow Carja soldiers in a flurry of motion. A few moments later, I saw why they were all so animated. A Behemoth was being goaded into the ring, the soldiers alternating between baiting it on and forcefully prodding it in with their weapons. Several men on either side held onto thick ropes that appeared to be anchored to two locations on the back of the machine’s “head,” using these to help guide it in.  


“ _You’ve got to be kidding…_ ”  


A minute or two of struggling later, and the soldiers had managed to get the machine into the ring, and several of them made quick work of tying it in place with ropecasters, anchoring the ends not attached to the Behemoth to several large, stone blocks. Satisfied, the soldiers quickly retreated back through the gate and pulled it closed behind them.  


“So he’s going to make me fight it… Okay, you’ve done this before,” I muttered, taking a deep breath, “but not without weapons.”  


Shit.  


The next thing I knew, the crowd’s cheering around me grew to a fever pitch, and I began to look around for what had caused the excitement. My eyes fell on the image of a figure at the top of the large, stone, castle-like structure that had been built from the back corner of the ring structure and into the wall of the cliff face behind it, as well. It didn’t take much to figure out just who the figure actually was as the crowd began to die down and his booming voice began to echo about the arena.  


“Carja faithful, rejoice! Our years in shadow are over!”  


I had no idea how his voice could actually be that loud, but then again we were in a somewhat enclosed space.  


“A new dawn trembles on the horizon, a new day soon to break!”  


I found myself absentmindedly looking down at the ground, as if I could stare through the dirt and the metal and the stone to the facility beneath. Only meters away… so close, and yet so far.  


“When it does, the false Sun King will be dead, and holy Meridian ours once more!”  


Part of me still found it hard to believe that there was someone concerned with “holy land” when there was an entity solely committed to the idea of killing everyone and everything on the face of the planet, but from the conversation earlier, it was clear HADES had done a better job at concealing its intentions than I would have thought for such an aggressive AI.  


“ _It probably had help._ ”  


From the master, apparently.  


“ _Fuck him._ ”  


Helis had continued to ramble while I had retreated into my thoughts, but even as I brought my attention back to the moment, I found him simply repeating many of the self-prophesizing sentiments he had already told me. Suddenly, I heard the crowd’s cries turn from excited to something more like fear and I blinked rapidly, refocusing on Helis only to see him gesturing to something off to my right. My gaze followed his hand until I found what had caused the commotion moments ago and my heart came to a stop for a beat or two.  


Two Corruptors clawed their way over the top of the ring structure and began to make their way down the side, past the crowd of now rather fearful spectators. My eyes locked on the red, glowing light on the front of each machine and I found myself unable to tear them away. Bile began to rise in my throat but I managed to hold it back at the last moment, taking a deep breath in through my nose as I gripped one of the bars of the cage for support, my palm immediately hurting from how tightly the metal pressed into it.  


“Can you not see the proof of the Sun’s blessing before your eyes?!”  


Helis’s voice cut through the daze that had fallen over me as I was finally able to tear my eyes from the ancient machines below me to look back up at him, once again. He showed no signs of concern, as his words hinted, but perhaps something like malicious glee as his eyes seemed to lock with mine for a moment, before continuing along to the rest of his audience.  


“How else could shadows such as these prowl in the broad light of day, were they not approved by the Sun and joined to our cause?”  


My gaze turned back to the pounding of the Corruptors below as I moved along the edge of the cage, following their path until their target came into view and I froze, mouth hanging agape slightly. The Behemoth.  


“ _You’ve_ seriously _got be kidding me…_ ”  


Helis continued to ramble about whatever reason he had for unleashing two weapons of incredible destruction into an arena filled with mostly innocent people, but my attention was only focused on the Corruptors as the drums on the top of their bodies began to spin up. A moment later, red bolts of light flew from them toward the Behemoth, the light hitting the machine and seemingly breaking across its armor. What had first appeared to be light quickly took on a much more solid appearance as thick tendrils of dark red and black began to wrap about the Behemoth, snaking beneath its armor and digging into the very core of the machine. Within moments, its eyes had turned from blue to red and it fought with even more strength against the cables that held it in place. A moment later, the two that had been attached to the back of its “head” snapped with metallic twangs, allowing the machine to stagger backward, before catching its balance and letting out a loud, mechanical roar.  


“Let this one, who schemed and slithered, be the first to die!”  


I whirled in place, looking up toward Helis at the top of the stone palace behind me to see him with one finger firmly pointed at me, a predatory expression so intense that it almost didn’t even look human set into his features.  


“Let her be the first—of thousands!”  


A moment later, a creaking sound came from around me and I staggered back from the bars of the cage, looking around my enclosure as my heart pounded in my ears. I didn’t have to wait long to figure out what it had meant, though, as a moment later the floor seemed to fall out from under me and I felt my stomach sink in my abdomen. My feet began to lift off the floor of the cage slightly as it fell straight toward the ground, the outside world whipping by in a blur of motion. A moment later, I heard a loud, metal clang and I seemed to fall through the floor of the cage, my feet slamming into the hard, sandy ground and causing my knees to immediately buckle.  


I fell to the ground with a great deal of force, pain almost as bad as the moment the Strider had landed on my back exploding throughout my body as I let out an involuntary scream of pain. Almost immediately, the dust from the landing entered my mouth and I began to cough, spitting grains of sand out with each one. The crowd began to cheer loudly, once again, and I had a bad feeling what that meant.  


“ _Get up!_ ”  


Working on it.  


I braced my hands under me and began to push myself into a kneeling position with a great amount of effort and an even greater amount of pain. As soon as I fell back on my heels, my hands braced on my thighs to hold me up, I took in a bright light just ahead of me and my eyes went wide.  


“Fuck!”  


I quickly threw myself to the right just in time to miss the first spew of rocks from the Behemoth’s strange digging mechanism, although the impact of rolling across the ground only redoubled the pain throughout my body. The edges of my vision were fading in and out of darkness, and it hurt to breathe any deeper than a shallow gasp, but I grit my teeth and forced myself to not give in to the welcoming sensation that almost felt like sleep that so desperately tugged at my mind.  


“ _We didn’t come this far just to die on the very top of the last hope for GAIA and the world!_ ”  


No… _I_ didn’t.  


With a cry somewhere between rage and pain, I struggled to my feet, staggering for a few steps before regaining my balance and turning to face the hulking machine across the open ground from me. As I did, instead of the corrupted Behemoth that I had expected to see, I found myself staring at an expanse of brown, the feeling of something heavy layered over my body reaching me a moment later. It didn’t feel like a restraint, it felt familiar… like a second skin…  


A metal second skin.  


No, now was not the time.  


I shook my head as violently as I could manage without passing out and as I opened my eyes, once again, the bright sunlight and settling dust of the dilapidated Sun Ring appeared before me, the Behemoth letting out a bellowing roar before charging straight toward me. My eyes widened but I quickly managed to dodge to one side, throwing myself across the open ground before tucking my shoulders forward and landing on the back of them. The pain exploded across my back as I rolled across the slowly healing cut from the Sawtooth, but I forced it out of my mind as no worse than anything else I had felt in the past five minutes.  


As I leapt to my feet and whirled to face the Behemoth, I found it backing away from a large, cement column that began to crumble and fall away. My eyes traced up from the broken base to the metal beam that rose from its top. It seemed to curve up and overhead to the platform where the cage I had previously been held in was slowly returning to and immediately an idea popped into my head.  


My weapons were up there.  


Let’s get them down here.  


Before I could talk myself out of the crazy idea, I turned and made a break for the nearest support column. The sounds of the enraged machine behind me echoed about the open ground, but I ignored them until I was sufficiently in front of it. Once in place, I skidded to a stop, whirling around to make sure the Behemoth wasn’t about to run me down, anyway. Thankfully, it was still standing by the slowly crumbling support column from moments ago, throwing its head about and pawing at the ground.  


It was clearly focused on me, but I wanted to make absolutely sure that it would charge again, so I placed my fingers between my teeth and let out a loud whistle. The machine lowered its head toward me as I began to wave my arms over my head.  


“Come on, big boy,” I muttered, keeping my gaze focused intensely on the machine.  


A moment later, it began to charge, and I lowered my arms but bent my knees in preparation. When the Behemoth was only yards away, and had no hope to change its trajectory enough to catch me, I dove to my right, rolling across the ground, once again. As I popped to my feet, I heard the heavy crash of the Behemoth ramming into the cement structure and felt the very ground shake beneath my feet. The metal beams overhead swayed precariously, and I saw the platform suspended over the center of the arena begin to tip to one side, but the box with my weapons and armor remained in place, for now.  


“One more oughta do it,” I muttered, glancing back toward the Behemoth before taking off toward the next closest support column.  


Before I could reach it, however, a large boulder crashed to the ground mere feet ahead of me and I skidded to a halt, windmilling my arms in a desperate attempt to keep myself from falling over. Once I came to a stop, I glanced over my shoulder to see the Behemoth lifting another large piece of a boulder that lay about the arena before it and I swore under my breath. I quickly skirted around the piece of the rock that had already landed before me and glanced back to see the next large projectile sailing directly toward me. With a shout of surprise, I suddenly dropped to the ground, covering the back of my head with my hands. The rock next to me shook as the heavy thud and crack of the new rock hit it. A fine layer of dust and debris fell over me, but nothing larger than a few small pebbles actually landed on me, so I quickly scrambled to my feet, taking off toward the support column, once again. As I came to a stop before it, I whirled around to make sure that another large rock was not about to try to flatten me.  


The Behemoth seemed to have given up on throwing boulders, for the moment, as it began to paw at the ground, lowering its head for the charge. I stood at the ready as it began to close the gap between us, the red of its eyes glowing brightly along with the tendrils of Corruption that wound about its armor. It wanted me dead, and it was mad that I wasn’t already. A moment later, I dove to the side, once again, the wind from the charging machine blowing over me as I somersaulted to my feet, spinning on one heel before staggering back a step or two to keep my balance.  


The machine had slammed firmly into the support column, which appeared to have only enraged it further, as it began to swing its head about, the end of its snout actually colliding with the column and dealing even more damage. As it did, I heard a loud groaning from overhead and glanced up at the metal beams that supported the platform in the center of the arena. They were beginning to tip inward precariously, the platform, itself, listing wildly.  


“Come on… come on…”  


A moment later, the support column the Behemoth was currently beside gave way and the metal beam broke free of its support with a horrifying metal screech that sent a shiver down my spine. Not long after, the other two damaged columns followed suit and I watched as the suspended platform began to sink lower and lower, dragging the remaining support beam with it until it finally broke free of its cement base, as well, and the entire structure began to collapse inward.  


The crowd screamed in surprise around me as I smirked, focusing on the storm of dust and twisted metal in the center of the arena. With a deep breath, I rushed in amongst the commotion, quickly disappearing amidst the cloud of dust and debris. I was able to quickly find the box with my belongings and grabbed the armored tunic from beside it, throwing it over my head. Next, I found my spear, thankfully undamaged, on the ground beside it and quickly used it to break open the wooden box. Inside, I found my bow, my sling, and much of my other ammunition and possessions. Unfortunately, I had no way to hold most of it until I could find the outer skirt and belt portion of my armor and I quickly searched the ground nearby until I found it underneath one corner of the wooden box. I pulled them free and hurried donned them, tying the belt in place before glancing around. The cloud of dust was beginning to settle, and undoubtedly my window was closing before the Behemoth would easily be able to find me, again.  


With several muttered curses under my breath, I began to hurriedly grab the various pouches, items, and ammunition from within the crate and affix them to my person. Within moments, though, I was strapping the quiver to my hip and jamming the arrows I could find inside into it.  


“ _Out of time, kid._ ”  


I quickly spun around, finding the commotion had settled, yet I was still hidden from the Behemoth by the collapsed platform. On the other hand, however, I could now look directly up at Helis, who was glaring down at me, his chest heaving as he seemed to be trying to murder me with his expression, alone. A smirk twisted my lips as I stepped forward a few paces, raising my arms to either side of me in a taunting gesture as I turned about to face the crowd.  


Cries of surprise and several loud choruses of boos came in response, which only fueled my amusement and the fire burning in my chest. As my arms fell to my sides, I whirled to face the last place I had seen the Behemoth to find it seemingly confused by the rubble. I moved around the side of it, drawing my bow as I did and waving it over my head.  


“Hey! Look who got her weapons back!”  


It finally seemed to notice me and turned squarely in my direction, lowering its head, once again.  


“Now you’re just a big, slow target. Come and get it, motherfucker!”


	23. The Prodigal Daughter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to Monday.
> 
> There's a lot that happens in this chapter, too. Buckle up.
> 
> More at 11 (aka the end of the chapter).

Almost as if taking me up on the taunt, the air before it began to shimmer and distort and I swore under my breath before throwing myself into cover behind the wreckage of the platform, once again. A moment later, the torrent of rocks and dirt thrown by the Behemoth began to rattle the metal and wood sections of the former structure. I waited until the sound and vibration had died down before taking a deep breath and popping out of cover, once again. The machine was beginning its motions to charge straight at me, and I quickly nocked an arrow against the bow, drawing it back alongside my ear as I aimed the tip just alongside the center metal plating of its head and loosed it. The arrow struck the machine and lodged itself in place as a loud whirring began to fill the air. A moment later, the tearblast lived up to its name as the row of small cylinders along the side of its head flew off, scattering about the ground near it as the machine reeled from the attack.  


It didn’t remain stunned for long, however, as it quickly refocused on me and charged with a bone-shaking mechanical roar. Instead of taking cover behind the wreckage, once again, I dodged to the opposite side, rolling across the open ground and to my feet before taking off toward the former support column that the machine had destroyed moments ago. A loud crash followed by the shriek of bending and tearing metal arose from behind me, but I didn’t stop to look back until I had skidded into cover behind what remained of the cement column.  


As I peeked around the edge, I caught sight of the Behemoth determinedly thrashing about amidst the pieces of twisted metal and broken wood. One of its feet landed firmly on the crate that had previously housed my possessions and I grimaced slightly.  


“ _No getting anything back from that, now._ ”  


I could make do.  


As its back was turned, my eyes locked onto the two, bright blue canisters on top of its hind quarters and I quickly nocked another arrow to my bow. Within moments, the Chillwater canister on the right flew free, flipping through the air until it landed on the sandy ground several feet away. The Behemoth seemed to take notice, however, and began to turn toward me, but it wasn’t the most nimble machine, so I was able to fire off one more shot at the other canister. This one hit its mark, as well, but this time it seemed to break the glass vessel open, spilling the misting, freezing liquid over the back part of the machine. It seemed to react accordingly, bucking and kicking about as if in an attempt to shake it loose, but the metal had already began to crystallize from the freezing temperature of the liquid. As I drew another arrow to fire toward the affected area, however, I noticed that it was already melting away, seemingly as if an extreme heat source emanated from within the machine, itself.  


“The corruption…”  


Fire.  


It could be hurt by fire.  


Too bad I didn’t think I had any fire arrows.  


Well, there went that plan.  


Instead, I quickly nocked another tearblast arrow and aimed toward the other side of the Behemoth’s head, hoping to take off the remainder of the strange modules that allowed it to lift and throw rocks like they were pebbles, but just as my fingers loosed the arrow, it turned the opposite direction. My arrow landed squarely in the side of its head, where the bright light from the tearblast began to build before suddenly bursting outward in a large explosion. More pieces of metal flew free from the machine as it staggered to the side. As its right, front foot slammed down, in an attempt to steady itself, however, an even more powerful explosion ripped across the open ground, lifting my hair from my shoulders and prompting me to lift one arm in an attempt to protect my eyes. When I lowered it a moment later, I saw the damage.  


One whole side of the Behemoth was now set ablaze, but the trail of fire was quickly spreading along the cables and wires that pulsed with the corruption, almost as if it were fuel. The machine began to thrash about in an attempt to put out the flames, but if anything they only spread faster.  


“ _Where did that explosion come from?_ ”  


I stared at the scene of the struggling machine for a few moments before a smirk tugged at my lips.  


I had bombs for my sling on me when they had captured me. I guess I had missed them in my mad scramble to retrieve my items before.  


“Seems they went to use after all.”  


And Sylens said figuring it out as I went wasn’t a plan.  


Not wanting to let more of the moment go to waste, I quickly stepped from the cover of the support column and drew three arrows from my quiver, carefully placing them against the string of my bow and drawing it back with as much strength as I could muster. I took a moment or two longer to aim than usual, but when I finally loosed the arrows, all three landed squarely in the Behemoth’s head, right around its glowing, red eye.  


The massive machine staggered, once again, but this time it actually seemed to lose its footing and fall onto its side. It wasn’t down, yet, as it continued to thrash about, trying to get up. I went to draw another arrow or two from my quiver, but instead my hands threw my bow over my shoulders and yanked my spear loose.  


Wait, what?  


That wasn’t what I wanted to do.  


My feet suddenly began to carry me forward, charging across the open ground as I held my spear tightly at my side.  


No, this was a bad idea.  


No, no, no, no, no—  


A moment later, I reached the machine and skidded to a halt just beneath its head, taking my spear in both hands and drawing it back beside me.  


“ _Stop! Don’t—!_ ”  


A moment later, I lunged forward, plunging the spear into the machine’s exposed neck. The blade instantly ripped through the wiring and thin metal plating there, sending a shower of sparks into the air, but almost just as quickly, bright red tendrils seemed to spew forth, splashing across my exposed arms. Instantly, the skin where the corruption touched me began to burn as if I had just stuck them into a burning forge, and I let out a cry of pain, staggering back a step or two as I yanked the spear free. I dropped the weapon to the ground as the pain began to increase even more and I desperately wiped at the red, liquid-like substance on my skin. It began to fling off onto the sand, but by now the pain was so intense that my eyes were watering and it was nearly impossible to see.  


“ _Fuck, fuck, fuck…_ ”  


Why, why, why…  


A few moments later, the burning began to subside and I was left standing there, panting as I held my arms out to either side slightly, letting the last remnants of the corruption drip onto the ground. My vision had finally cleared enough to see, again, and I quickly looked up toward the Behemoth before me, but it lay still, flames still burning on its corpse. Satisfied that I wasn’t about to be immediately pulverized, I turned back to my arms, taking in how red the skin was. It looked like I had stood out in the direct sunlight for a day or two, and as I moved them, the burning sensation flared ever so slightly.  


Stupid, stupid stupid…  


“ _I…I…_ ”  


_I_ would never have done something so stupid.  


With a deep breath in through my nose, I crouched down, grabbing my spear off the ground, wiping the blade off on the sandy surface before swinging it behind me and back into its holders. The crowd had gone much quieter than before as I lifted my head to look around at them. I could see many of them murmuring amongst themselves and pointing to the downed machine, but my smirk only grew as I turned to find Helis fuming from his perch on the palace. Our eyes locked for several long moments before he raised his fist in the arrow, bellowing loud enough for his voice to echo about the space, once again.  


“Silence!”  


The crowd obeyed and soon the only sound in the Sun Ring was the wind overhead and the flames crackling behind me. A few moments later, Helis pointed at me, his voice booming out, once again.  


“Shadows, kill her!”  


A moment later, two dark shapes sprang into motion from the edge of the arena, leaping from their perches and landing with heavy thuds mere yards away, their red eyes fixed firmly on me as they skittered closer. I yanked my bow free, instantly nocking an arrow to it as I aimed it between the two machines, trying to figure out which one might leap first. After several long moments, and neither of us had attacked, Helis apparently grew impatient.  


“Kill her!” he bellowed even louder.  


Still, the machines only moved closer, although the drums affixed atop them slowly began to spin, the all-too flexible tails behind them beginning to raise, as well.  


“Why leave it to them?!” I suddenly spat, looking past the machines to Helis, once again. “Come get me yourself, coward!”  


Just as soon as I had finished shouting, a large explosion shook the arena and I staggered slightly, as did the Corruptors. When I looked back toward the cloud of dust that had formed from where the gate I had seen the Shadow Carja guards use to bring in the Behemoth once stood, I caught the vague hint of motion amidst the brown mass. A moment later, two Ravagers leapt through the commotion, coming to a halt in stances clearly ready for a fight as their cannons fixed ahead of them. My heart stopped for a beat or two as I thought they were also fixed on me, but I quickly realized that unlike the Behemoth or the Corruptors, these machines eyes’ still shone bright blue, as if they were friendly…  


“ _No way…_ ”  


A moment later, another shape appeared from the dust, charging straight past the two larger machines and straight toward me. It appeared to be two Striders, but something rode atop the one on the left. More accurately: someone rode atop it.  


“ _The enemy of my enemy…_ ”  


I wasn’t entirely in a position to complain about a rescue attempt. As they drew closer, I turned and began running in the same direction they were travelling, stashing my bow over my torso as I ran. A moment later, the nearest Strider drew alongside me and I hurled myself toward it, gripping the cables on the back of its neck tightly and using them to drag myself on top of it. At first, I lay sideways across the machine’s back, flat on my stomach, but I quickly spun myself around so that I was seated normally and quickly yanked on the cables to bring the machine to a stop before it ran headlong into the wall of the Sun Ring.  


As I glanced to my left, I found Sylens looking over at me, his expression set somewhere between a grimace and a smirk.  


“Don’t think this means we’re even,” I panted.  


His face finally cracked into a full smirk as we both spurred our mounts on, tearing back across the arena and away from the Corruptors. As we cleared the Ravagers, I heard the unmistakable sound of their roars ringing out over the chaos that had appeared in the arena, once again. I spared a glance back over my shoulder to see them lunging forward, their heavy claws and jaws that could rip a person in half easily tearing the armor off the Corruptors and sending them staggering to the ground in twitching, sparking heaps. The crowd jeered around us as I found myself unable to hold back the laughter that burst from me, but began to turn my attention forward, once again.  


Just as I did, I heard one final call from the deep, booming voice that had dominated the Sun Ring so far, the one last word echoing out across the carnage on the open ground.  


“Traitor!”  


Almost immediately afterward, we were swallowed by the cloud of dust from Sylens’ entrance, and the sounds of the Sun Ring quickly began to fade behind us. We continued to ride, following a foothill of the larger mountain range that towered behind Sunfall until Sylens finally began to slow and I pulled on the cables to my Strider, as well, coming to a stop beside him.  


“So… you came back.”  


“Of course I did,” he shot back, resting the cables to his Strider in his lap and turning toward me. “If you’d been killed, the last remaining copies of the Zero Dawn project would be forever locked away beneath the Earth.”  


I let out a heavy sigh, rolling my eyes before focusing my admonishing glare on him.  


“So are you just going to march me right back there, again? ‘Cuz that was such a smart idea the first time.”  


“It would be incredibly foolhardy to run straight back there now,” he replied, “and it was a perfectly functioning plan, _you_ —”  


“Oh yeah, leading me through the streets pretending I was your ‘bounty’ while threatening to kill me, that was ‘perfect.’”  


“I never said it was ‘perfect,’ I said—” he stopped himself before letting out a heavy sigh, shaking his head. “I don’t see the logic in talking in circles with you right now, so I won’t engage in it.”  


“Is that you saying you’ll shut up? I can take that.”  


“Listen, _child_ ,” he spat, turning toward me, once again, “I just saved your life for the second time in a mere day.”  


“I’ve faced—”  


“And yet,” he continued, ignoring my intrusion, “you still act so carelessly about yourself. Do you not realize the utter importance that you carry in your bloodstream—in the very fabric of your being?”  


My mouth closed with a soft click as I clenched my jaw, my hands tightening around the cables of the Strider.  


“ _Anointed—gifted—special—savior—martyr—all the same bullshit._ ”  


“If you die now, the rest of the world dies with you,” he continued, his tone quieter but no less forceful, “and I, for one, am not ready to simply resign to that so easily. You may call my intentions selfish, but could you say you would truly not feel the same way?”  


My teeth ground together as I tried to hold back the angry, emotional tirade that tried to escape my throat, and instead form a more intelligent response.  


“What do you seek APOLLO for, Sylens? Really?”  


He blinked in response, seemingly taken aback by my question. Quickly, he regained his composure, clearing his throat softly before speaking again.  


“Knowledge, as I have sought my entire life.”  


“For what purpose, though?”  


“Does it need a purpose?”  


“Sometimes, yes.”  


He seemed to ponder the thought for a moment before letting out a soft “huh” and nodding slowly.  


“I seek to understand the way this world came to be—before and now—and perhaps in doing so, know where it will go.”  


“And yet,” I sighed, “you managed to assist the one thing that would see all of that rendered useless.”  


His face hardened, once again, as he shifted his position on the back of his Strider.  


“I was not aware of what HADES was, at first, but when I found out—”  


“Helis knew you,” I cut in, staring blankly at the ground just in front of us for a moment before blinking and turning my gaze back to Sylens. “You never told me you knew the man who killed my—nearly killed me.”  


He stared back into my eyes for a moment or two before shrugging.  


“Now you know.”  


I let out a growl of frustration as my Strider seemed startled by the sound and shifted slightly, but fell still, once again, a moment later.  


“The man is a serious threat, Aloy,” Sylens continued. “Let’s do all we can to make sure that he and HADES don’t succeed.”  


“Everyone and this—‘we’ bullshit,” I snapped, “when all of you really just mean _me_!”  


He seemed taken aback at first, but his face quickly screwed up in curiosity.  


“To whom else are you referring?”  


My mouth slammed closed as I held my tongue, trying to hold my facial expression as still as possible. There was no way I wanted him to get close to thinking anything was different with me and my—condition—than he already knew.  


“Someone who feels they need to be validated for participating, while all of this feels strikingly familiar to you?”  


Wait… he thought he was talking to Elisabet.  


But… he was?  


No… not quite.  


How “quite,” though?  


That doesn’t even make sense.  


My head was beginning to hurt.  


“I apologize if I struck a chord, Doctor—”  


“Not ‘Doctor Sobeck,’” I taunted, “still just the disappointing Nora girl who ruined your ‘perfectly functioning’ plan.”  


With a sigh, he began to shake his head, but I noticed that he was reaching for something at his belt. I tensed, prepared to grab my spear at a moment’s notice, but when Sylens turned back to me, he simply held out his hand. Confusion washed over me as I stared back at his face first, searching for some kind of tell that he was deceiving me, but it was just as much of a blank slate, as ever. Finally, I turned my gaze toward his outstretched hand to find a small, glowing, metal device in his palm.  


Another Focus.  


“I see you do not have yours,” he explained. “I figured Helis would take it, at the very least.”  


I glanced between the device in his hand and his face several times before slowly reaching to take it. As I did, he made no move to attack me, but simply let his hand fall into his lap, once again. I hesitantly placed the device by my ear, waiting for it to explode or shock me, but instead the interface simply sprung to life, as mine had done so many times. I scanned the items that had appeared right away and noticed that all of them felt incredibly familiar…  


“As I said before: I was able to learn from you by copying,” he explained. “I made a backup of every file you ever scanned and stored on your Focus. It proved—useful—on several occasions.”  


“Such as learning to override machines?”  


“Precisely.”  


As my eyes travelled over the option on the interface labelled “journals,” I froze for a moment. The mere thought of him having access to those files made me squirm, but it was most likely inevitable, at this point.  


“Now that you are fully equipped, once again,” Sylens continued, “we are wasting time dawdling here, the Eclipse and HADES are undoubtedly preparing to march on Meridian now that—”  


“I have to go to the Embrace, first,” I interrupted.  


He recoiled slightly, spluttering in the first display of true surprise I had ever seen from him.  


“What for?”  


“Helis sent a detachment of Eclipse there to kill all of them,” I explained. “I can’t just let that happen.”  


“Aloy, what are one tribe who cast you out—despised you—compared to the survival of the rest of the world?”  


“I don’t care if it’s one person, or a thousand,” I shot back, gripping the cables of my Strider even more firmly, “I will not simply condemn them to die because of me.”  


With that, I shook the cables slightly, bringing the Strider to attention from where it had begun to graze in the short grass around us. As I prepared to set off, I met Sylens’ gaze, once again, taking a slow breath in through my nose.  


“Not again.”  


He stared back at me in confusion for a few moments before his eyes began to widen. Just as he went to say something, however, I spurred my heels into the sides of the Strider and urged it ahead, quickly pushing it into a gallop that began to turn the brown, orange, and green scenery into a blur.  


I didn’t care if Sylens followed.  


I knew he wouldn’t.  


There was no way he would get that close to a real fight.  


But me—I had been staying out of one for too long.

 

The ride across the Sundom seemed to stretch on forever, but the pain that had been so prevalent in the first hour or so had begun to dull to nothing but background noise. I didn’t allow the Strider to slow, but thankfully it had showed no signs of losing power, either. As I had predicted, there had been no signs of Sylens, even when I had checked over my shoulder several times to make sure. That didn’t mean I had felt entirely alone the entire ride so far, though. My thoughts raced almost as quickly as the galloping Strider, even taking enough of my focus at times that I almost rode straight into a stream or off a cliff.  


Shockingly, they had even begun to argue in Sylens’ favor several times.  


“ _HADES wants Meridian so badly for its own reasons; that has to mean something._ ”  


Yeah, it was a huge center full of people. It would be easy to kill a lot of people in one place.  


“ _It wants to destroy the entire planet, it doesn’t care for just one city._ ”  


It certainly seemed to.  


“ _There’s something else._ ”  


Well, I could figure that out later.  


It was well into the night, with the sky even beginning to show hints of the light of dawn when I began to catch signs of greenery along the trail by the light of the Strider’s eye. I knew I had to be getting close to Nora territory, so I leaned forward and urged the Strider on even quicker. Within another hour or so of riding, I pulled on the cables at the back of its head and slowed it to a trot, my eyes scanning over the scene ahead. A large, structure stood across the narrow opening between two large rock formations ahead, but something was off.  


I reached up to my Focus, bringing the interface to life around me and quickly navigating to the Low Light Mode, once again. As the world around me sprung to life with white outlines, I finally realized what was wrong with the gate. It was hanging at an odd angle… and only half of it seemed to be there.  


“The Eclipse…”  


Of course they had broken through.  


That meant the longer I sat there, the more people died.  


Not again.  


I urged the Strider on with an emphatic “yah,” once again, and we quickly passed through the now-open border. Despite the sense of urgency that compelled every part of me to tear down the trail as fast as possible, part of me said that could easily end up with me running into a part of the Eclipse detachment in surprise and ruining any advantage I might have, so I kept the Strider at a reasonably quick canter.  


Within minutes, I began to see the first signs of the Eclipse attack: small huts destroyed and still burning, outlines of bodies on the ground strewn about them… or just the parts of bodies. The feeling of nausea rose in my throat for a moment, but I managed to swallow it down as I turned away from the third burning cabin I had come across and instead focused on following the trail.  


By the time any of the scenery began to feel familiar, the sky had lightened considerably, although with the dawn light it only revealed the clouds overhead, adding a menacing, grey sheen to the world around me. As I rounded a sharp bend in the trail, I brought the Strider to a sudden halt, staring straight ahead at the Main Embrace gate that now loomed before me.  


Or what was left of it, rather.  


The massive logs that had made up the bulk of the structure now lay scattered about like small twigs after a strong storm, with only a few still bound together and attached to the hinge on the righthand side. More bodies, both human and machine, littered the ground around it, and I forced myself to take a deep breath to calm my nerves before urging the Strider on toward the carnage. As I passed through the former battleground, I took note of how many bodies were actually Nora, and how many wore the odd, white masks of the Eclipse. A strange sense of pride swelled in my chest for a moment as I noted how there appeared to be far more masked bodies than Nora braves, but it quickly passed when a flurry of motion ahead caught my attention and I yanked on the cables, bringing the Strider to a halt, once again.  


Something large and nearly as dark as the hills and trees behind it skittered across the landscape, but its motion alone was enough to tell me what it was. My hands gripped the cables of the Strider even tighter as I clenched my jaw.  
This was what I came here for.  


No time to back out now.  


“ _There’s—_ ”  


No, there wasn’t.  


With a deep breath, I pulled my bow from over my shoulders and nocked an arrow, holding it relaxed but at the ready before me. My heels squeezed the sides of the Strider and it slowly began to move forward, following the worn trail more or less on its own as I kept my hands securely on my bow. The shape of Corruptor seemed to continue on its way, unaware of my presence, but following the same trail as me.  


“ _And that leads…_ ”  


Oh no.  


Fuck the element of surprise.  


I spurred the Strider onward, holding my bow and the arrow to its string with one hand as I gripped the machine’s cables to hold myself in place. We charged along the path, quickly closing the gap between us and the Corruptor, which finally seemed to take notice when the pounding of the Strider’s hooves drew close. It whirled around, red eye quickly fixing on us as I tried to steer my machine around it, but a moment later, the spindly machine leapt in front of us, preventing any form of escape. Instead, I let go of the cables to the Strider and brought my bow up, drawing the arrow back aiming directly at the glowing red light at the front of its body. The world seemed to go into slow motion for a moment as I let go of the string, loosing the hardpoint arrow from my grasp. I watched as it sailed through the air before planting firmly in the glowing red light of the Corruptors eye, sending a shower of sparks into the air.  


The machine recoiled and began to flail about, swinging its deadly tail almost randomly. Seizing the moment, I swung the bow over my shoulders and quickly gripped the cables of the Strider, once again. Now with more control, I carefully guided it around the thrashing machine and began to leave it behind. From past experience, I hadn’t expected to render it blind, but then again, I guess I hadn’t tried aiming specifically for a Corruptor’s eye before.  


Good to know.  


“ _Or random luck._ ”  


No time for pessimism now.  


Moments later, a larger, glowing light appeared ahead of me and I slowed the Strider slightly, but as I drew closer, I realized that it was not another machine. My mouth fell open as I yanked on the Strider’s cables, bringing it to a near halt as I stared at the remains of an entire Nora village, now leveled to something more like large bonfires than buildings.  


“Mother’s Cradle… just… gone…”  


“ _That’s why we’re here._ ”  


It’s _our_ fault.  


“ _Don’t think like that._ ”  


How could I not?!  


“ _You can place the blame later. If you want to save anyone who’s left, you need to move your ass._ ”  


Right.  


I came here for a reason.  


Within minutes, I had brought the Strider to a halt at the entrance to Mother’s Watch, my gaze slowly travelling from smoldering pile of wood to smoldering pile of wood, trying to ignore the bodies that were scattered between them.  


“ _It may not be too late…_ ”  


Or it may be way too fucking late.  


I slid off the back of the Strider, walking into the former bustling Nora settlement almost as if in a daze. Echoes of voices whispering just out of sight rang in my ears, and I slowly began to shake my head to try to clear them away.  


“ _Outcast… Motherless… Curse…_ ”  


“ _You’d want to see us die._ ”  


“ _Don’t pretend like you care now._ ”  


“Stop it, stop it, stop it…” I moaned as I pressed my hands tightly against my temples.  


“ _Fed so many to a meat grinder._ ”  


“ _How much blood do you need on your hands to see?_ ”  


“ _You left us in here to rot._ ”  


But I was here now.  


That meant something.  


Right?  


I’d make it mean something.  


With a deep breath in, I let my hands fall by my sides, my eyes focusing on the trail leading up from the back of the former settlement toward the looming mountain before me. As I did, deep, booming sounds echoed from above and I paused for a moment, listening intently.  


“ _That doesn’t sound good._ ”  


Not at all.  


Before I could even think through my actions, I was charging forward, sprinting across the open ground and up the path toward the entrance to All Mother Mountain. The steep incline of the trail quickly slowed my flat-out pace to a hurried climb as my breaths came in heavy, ragged rasps, each one sending a new flare of pain shooting through my side and across my back. Soon, though, I came to the top of the trail and skidded to a halt, my already ragged breath catching in my throat.  


A towering Thunderjaw stood in the middle of the clearing, focused intently on something ahead of it. As my gaze followed the path of the machine’s, I quickly found a well-barricaded entrance to the tunnel that led down to the Eleuthia facility and the Matriarch’s retreat. There was considerably more wooden planks and barricades than I remembered, but as I focused on the narrow opening between them, I caught sight of the hints of motion within.  


They weren’t all dead.  


Yet.  


“ _That’s good enough._ ”  


I could work with “not dead yet.”  


Before I could totally comprehend what I was doing, I placed my fingers between my teeth and let out a loud whistle around them, the sound echoing about the clearing, despite the whirring and thudding of the monstrous machine before me. It turned its head from the barricaded opening, its red eyes staring straight at me as I finally took in the pulsating, red and black tendrils snaking about its body.  


Shit.  


A corrupted Thunderjaw.  


“ _That changes nothing._ ”  


Right… right…  


Suddenly, another sound cut across the open ground and my gaze drifted down from the glowing red of the machine to find several white-masked figures staring back at me.  


There were Eclipse soldiers, too.  


Oh.  


Just then, more voices came from off to the right and both my gaze and the Eclipse soldiers’ turned toward it.  


Bodies streamed from behind the barricade at the mouth of All Mother Mountain, brandishing spears and bows and any other weapons they could carry.  


The Nora Braves.  


Varl.  


Sona.  


They were still alive.  


My jaw clenched as I turned back to the looming threat before me, my hands instinctually drawing my bow from over my shoulders.  


“Come and get it, motherfuckers.”  


With that, the disc launchers on the back of the Thunderjaw suddenly aimed into the air and fired several projectiles overhead, all of which immediately made straight for me, and I was forced to dive forward, rolling across the ground as the beams of energy that burst from the bottoms of them sliced the ground on either side of me, crossing over where I had been standing a moment ago.  


“Let’s take that away…”  


I quickly grabbed an arrow from my quiver, checked the tip, and nocked it to the bowstring. A moment later, it landed squarely in the connection between the Thunderjaw’s right disc launcher and its body. The loud whirring of the tearblast arrow filled the air before the sudden explosion ripped across the open ground, bringing with it a bright flash of light and a shower of sparks. A loud thud shook the ground as the disc launcher landed beside the machine, almost directly atop one of the Eclipse soldiers. As he staggered to the side to avoid it, an arrow sprouted from the side of his head and he quickly fell to the ground in a limp heap.  


The towering machine roared in either pain or anger, if it could truly feel either, before lowering its head and beginning to charge straight toward me. With a muttered curse under my breath, I began to sprint to the side, throwing myself forward at the last moment as the thundering footsteps closed in, and tucked my shoulders to roll across the ground. As I popped to my feet, once again, I was faced with a screaming, masked figure who raised a wicked, axe-like weapon over his head.  


Moments before he was about to bring it down on my head, however, an arrow slammed into his side and he faltered, staggering off course for a moment. I seized my opportunity and quickly grabbed an arrow from my quivering, gripping it tightly in one hand, and charged toward him, swinging it toward his head. I felt my hand press firmly against his head as a crack split the air and he staggered in place for a moment. When I pulled my hand away, the arrow remained still, jutting out from the top of his head at an odd angle. His hands feebly pawed at it, but a moment later he fell backward and lay mostly still on the ground.  


I quickly glanced off to my right, where the arrow had come from, to find Sona already drawing another arrow, nocking it to her bow. Our eyes met for a moment before she nodded, her lips drawn into a firm line. I nodded in response before we both turned back to the bigger problem at hand.  


The Thunderjaw had recovered from its failed charge, shaking its head as it began to turn in place, trying to face its attackers, once again. Before it could fully turn around, however, I took off running into the center of the open clearing, throwing my bow over my shoulders. My eyes were fixed on the still slightly sparking tip of the disc launcher embedded in the ground, and I tried to slip past all other distractions to close the gap between it and myself. Moments later, I skidded to a halt beside it, ramming my shoulder into an Eclipse soldier who attempted to block my path. He staggered backward and fell to the ground before one of the Nora braves charged in, spear held aloft, and skewered him on the end of it.  


I quickly turned my attention back to the downed weapon and wrapped my hands around the protruding end. With a few swift tugs, I managed to pull it loose, dirt and debris falling from the tip as I awkwardly held it at my side. Quickly, my right hand found the mechanism along its side that allowed me to fire it at will, and I poised my fingers over it.  


The Thunderjaw, itself, was staring back at me from across the clearing, the guns at the sides of its head beginning to glow a bright blue.  


“Not so fast…”  


I jabbed the fire button on the disc launcher in my hands and staggered back a step or two as the projectile exploded from the tip in a burst of flame and sound. Seconds later, an explosion rocked the machine and it staggered to the side, the guns that had been powering up moments ago falling dark and still. A chorus of cheers rose from the Nora braves, but it was short lived as the Thunderjaw turned back to the clearing and proceeded to launch several disc projectiles of its own into the air. Quickly, several Braves and Eclipse soldiers were cut down by the beams of energy that shot from the bottom of the projectiles, which only served to fuel the fire burning in my chest even more.  


With a growl, I began to fire more rounds at the hulking machine, each one slamming into its body with little regard for accuracy. Metal plating fell away with each blast, though, revealing more of the inner, synthetic muscle and wiring, until finally the last shot knocked away the metal door that revealed the glowing “heart” of the machine. Immediately, I heard a chorus of shouts from the Braves and could only guess that they had noticed it, too.  


“Shoot it in the heart!” I yelled, dropping the heavy weapon to the ground and yanking my sling from its holder at my waist.  


Most of the Braves turned their attention on the Thunderjaw, while several set about holding off the last few Eclipse soldiers. I kept my focus on the machine, as well, as I swiped a bomb from the hand of one of the fallen Eclipse soldiers and placed it in the sling holder, drawing it back as I moved toward my target. The machine let out a mechanical roar that seemed to shake the ground, but a moment later, a small explosion hit it on the side of its head, prompting it to stagger to the side, revealing its weak spot, once again. Seizing the opportunity, I grabbed another bomb from the body of the same Eclipse soldier and drew the sling taut and raised it before me, taking careful aim while factoring in the arcing trajectory of the projectile.  


As my fingers released the bomb in the sling, the world seemed to snap into slow motion. I watched as the small, round object flew through the air, glowing faintly yellowish-green from the blaze inside. My eyes traced it all the way until it slammed into the glowing opening of the Thunderjaw. Immediately, a ball of fire exploded from within the machine as it let out a pained sound and staggered to the side, the world returning to its normal pace almost immediately thereafter.  


A moment later, the ground shook as the machine fell onto its side, its legs flailing into the air as it desperately tried to right itself. Seeing the opportunity, however, several of the other Braves pulled out slings and began to launch bombs at the exposed opening I had mentioned, as it was now pointing helplessly at the sky. Their shots were not all entirely accurate, but they landed close enough that there was no doubt they did significant damage. Just as I thought it should have been done for, the machine began to get its legs under itself and rise, once again, so I quickly searched the fallen Eclipse for another bomb before loading the last one I could find into my sling and loosing it toward the exposed heart. As it made contact, the machine let out a withering roar, and began to fall back onto the ground.  


A moment later, the light in the opening with its heart began to fade and I let out a heavy sigh, lowering my sling to my side. The other Braves began to raise their weapons over the heads, letting out a loud chorus of cheers. I closed my eyes, tilting my head back toward the sky and feeling tiny drops of rain splash on my face. It was raining. I hadn’t noticed.  


“The Anointed came back for us!”  


That prompted me to instantly open my eyes, lowering my head as I looked around for who had called out a moment ago, but it was impossible to tell as all of the Braves were looking to me, tired and wary smiles on their faces.  


“ _This is too weird._ ”  


“I—”  


“It is true! I told all of you that All Mother would provide!”  


My gaze moved past the warriors around me to the barricaded entrance to the old Eleuthia facility. A familiar face hobbled from the opening, raising her hands seemingly both in greeting and in some kind of praise as she saw me. A strange mix of feelings washed over me as I caught sight of Teersa emerging from the mountain, both happy to see she had survived and somewhat angry that it was still being credited to this All Mother that was so much less mystical than any of them could comprehend.  


“Aloy has returned to us in our time of need!”  


My lips pulled into a thin line as I began to move toward her, but just as I took the first few steps, the ground began to shake, once again, and I froze, my head whipping around in all direction for the source of the disturbance. The other Braves noticed, as well, and they too began to scan the surroundings.  


“High Matriarch, get back inside!” Sona barked, drawing her bow at the ready.  


Teersa paused for a moment, seemingly struck by the surprise of an unseen enemy, but began to turn toward the entrance to the tunnel, once again. Just as she did, however, a bright, red light caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. My head whipped around toward it only for my stomach to sink lower in my abdomen at the sight of a Corruptor clawing its way over the top of the rocky mountainside on the edge of the clearing.  


The Braves began to shout and point, but my gaze quickly turned from the ancient machine. Teersa still stood several yards from the entrance to the barricade, staring up at the machine with mouth agape and widened eyes. A cry burst from me, and I couldn’t truly tell if it contained any actual words, but my legs suddenly propelled me forward. My hand reached into the pouch at my side for another bomb, but my fingers only found the empty interior of the leather container.  


“ _Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck—_ ”  


I stashed my sling as quickly as I could and began to reach for my bow, but as I did, the Corruptor above us sprung from its perch, sailing through the air toward the entrance of the cave. My bow caught on some part of my armor and my arms came to a sudden, jerking stop as I let out another unintelligible cry. A moment later, the ancient machine landed with a ground-shaking thud just to the side of the cave entrance. Several arrows glanced off its body, but it seemed to pay no mind as its tail suddenly unfurled behind it, raising menacingly into the air.  


The world slowed, once again, as I could only watch the flexible, deadly appendage shoot forward and slam into the chest of the elderly Matriarch. Her entire body shook from the impact, her look of disbelief and awe drifting from the machine to the powerful metal limb now protruding from herself. She began to lift into the air, her hands feebly reaching toward the Corruptor’s tail, but there was nothing she could do from her position.  


A blink later, and the image of the elderly Nora was replaced with another familiar figure, while the world around me seemed to change, as well. The splash of red hair against the blue sky and the expanse of dirt and grass only registered in my mind for a split second before the real world returned with the next blink, just in time to see the machine toss Teersa’s body straight into the rock wall above the entrance to the barricaded cave entrance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp.
> 
> Stay tuned next week.


	24. Here Now

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's Monday, y'all.
> 
> Happy Memorial Day holiday to my American compatriots, and... happy May 27th to everyone else?
> 
> This chapter is kind of a heavy one, emotionally... I hope. It was written in some span of time after reading the feels-fest of the chapter "You Had Two" from imagine0314's brilliant [Of Mother and Machine](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18405200/chapters/43590269), so I definitely feel like I owe them for a good amount of inspiration at least in how said emotional aspect was presented in this chapter. Seriously, check their story out if you haven't, already.
> 
> Anyway, enough stalling.
> 
> See you on the other side.

I didn’t see Teersa hit the ground, because my focus had shifted back to the machine before me, my hands finally managing to rip the bow free from over my shoulders. An arrow appeared at the ready a moment later, and I loosed it toward the metal canister atop the Corruptor’s body. Sparks flew from where it lodged into the exposed weapon, and it recoiled slightly, turning its attention to me, now. Within the span of only a few seconds, I had managed to fire off two or three more arrows, the first one firmly destroying the weapon drum that I had struck the first time, and the other two landing in the glowing eye at the front of the machine. It began to swing its tail wildly, lashing out almost like the one I had seen earlier, but I didn’t simply leave it be, this time.  


I fired another arrow toward the missile launcher on its side, and almost immediately mine was joined with a volley of other arrows, each one aiming for one of the exposed weapons or its still feebly glowing eye. Within seconds, the amount of ammunition fired into the machine seemed to overwhelm it and it staggered to one side before falling to the ground in a limp heap, all traces of its “life” now gone from its form.  


I didn’t stop to take in the scene, though, but renewed my race toward the entrance to the cave, where several more Nora had come from hiding and were clustered around a form on the ground. As I reached them, I brusquely shoved several of them aside so that I could get through, and immediately fell to my knees once I had reached the center of the group. Teersa’s form lay on the rain-soaked ground, still and so much frailer than she had seemed before.  


Hot tears began to burn in my eyes as I reached toward her, but paused at the last moment. I didn’t even know where to begin. There were so many things that could have happened. What was I hoping to find?  


I gingerly rolled her body onto its back, revealing half her face to be covered in dark mud. As my gaze drifted down from her face, I found the entire front of her clothing stained with a dark crimson, or a mixture of crimson and brown. Others around me began to gasp and whisper amongst themselves, but I ignored them as I sat back on my heels, dipping my head forward until my chin touched my chest.  


I had just watched…  


“ _How could you have gotten there sooner?_ ”  


She’d come out of the safety because I was there.  


“ _You didn’t—_ ”  


This was my fault.  


Again.  


“ _No. You can’t—_ ”  


Yes. I could.  


Suddenly, my head lifted to look in the direction of the cave entrance, and my jaw clenched tightly.  


ELEUTHIA.  


There had to be something there.  


Before I could second guess myself, I scooped the fragile form of Teersa from the ground and barked at the crowd around me to separate. The Nora obeyed as if in a dazed trance, staring at me with widened eyes as I brushed past them, carrying the wet form of the High Matriarch. At the entrance to the barricade, several more familiar faces appeared, their expressions ranging from shocked to angry.  


“Aloy, is she…? What are you…?” Teb managed, seemingly unable to form full, coherent sentences.  


“What have you done, chuff?” Resh snarled.  


When I didn’t answer either of them, Resh tried to block my path, but I simply turned to the side and forced my shoulder into the center of his chest with as much force as I could, sending him staggering backward and to the ground. Others around us gasped, but I ignored them, pressing on down the incline toward the large door at the very bottom of the hill. Other voices began to call after me, but I blocked them out, instead forcing my legs to carry me even faster. When I reached the bottom, I moved over to the lock on the right side and carefully shifted my hold on Teersa so that I could hold my hand over the interface. With a soft, electronic chime, the locks opened and the heavy, metal door began to slide open. As soon as it was just wide enough for me to fit through, I slipped between the doors and charged ahead, only to pause a moment later at the sight of what remained of the Nora tribe all staring back at me, eyes wide in bewilderment.  


With a deep breath, I resumed my path toward the even larger door at the far end of the room, ignoring the stares and whispered comments that arose around me. As I charged up the short set of stairs onto the metal platform before the door, I heard one voice in particular call out over the others.  


“What have you done?”  


I whirled in place, aware that the red light above the door had sprung to life and begun to scan over me, but my attention had shifted to the face of the voice that had accused me. The two other High Matriarchs stood off to the side of the room, Jezza’s face registering a look of shock while Lansra’s showed nothing but scowling hatred.  


“What have you brought back upon us?” she reiterated, moving toward me.  


“I came back to save you,” I spat, taking several steps back toward the edge of the platform, even as the sound of the synthetic voice behind me welcoming Elisabet Sobeck registered in the back of my mind.  


“And you have brought the death of one of my sisters, one of the High Matriarchs!”  


“Not if I can help it.”  


As she began to launch into a damning tirade, I whirled in place and charged toward the opening doors, the blue and purple light from within spilling into the cavernous room where the Nora began to gasp, whisper, and let out general sounds of awe at the sight of what they believed to be the home of their god opening for an outcast girl. A moment later, however, I had stepped into the facility beyond and the doors began to slide closed behind me, once again.  


Within moments, the voices, including Lansra’s shrieking condemnations, disappeared behind the thick steel and I let out a heavy sigh, only allowing myself a moment of pause before charging straight ahead.  


“There has to be something in here for healing…”  


“ _These facilities were built to create life, not necessarily to maintain it…_ ”  


Creating, sustaining, they had similar ideas.  


“ _Not necessarily…_ ”  


“Shut up!” I snapped, shaking my head as I pressed onward, charging through the doorway to my left.  


I nearly tripped on the last step on the short set of stairs leading from the entryway to the main floor of the facility, but I regained my footing at the last moment and continued onward. A moment later, I came to the first door on the left and glanced inside. A large room containing several large, glass cylinders along a central platform greeted me, and I quickly charged inside. I didn’t know exactly what I was looking for, but something told me that of all the places within this facility, this would be the one that would have whatever it was.  


As I approached the large cylinder propped up in a mechanical holder at the front of the platform, I felt Teersa begin to shift in my arms and I nearly dropped her out of surprise. I carefully laid her down before the machine, holding her head and shoulders up with my knees as I looked around the room wildly, my heart pounding in my ears.  


There had to be something… anything…  


“ _I tried to tell you, kid…_ ”  


“Shut up!” I shrieked, hanging my head as more hot tears began to well at the corners of my eyes. “Shut up…”  


Motion from the elder Nora before me drew my attention, once again, and I hurriedly wiped the backs of my hands over my eyes, wicking the tears away.  


“A-Aloy?” she managed, her voice raspy and breathless.  


“It’s me, Teersa, I’m here…”  


“Where… where are we?”  


I swallowed painfully, taking a deep breath before replying.  


“We’re in the mountain, Teersa… through the door.”  


She began to move more, but her motions were still incredibly feeble, and a moment later she let out a pained groan.  


“Stay still,” I said softly, placing a hand on her shoulder. “You’re hurt.”  


“I… I know Aloy, but… you have brought me into the home of the All Mother?”  


I paused for a moment before nodding, letting out a small “mhm” as well, as Teersa’s eyes were not focused on me.  


“Where… where you were born?”  


I nodded again, this time as the elder’s eyes focused on me above her.  


“Aloy… my child… why?”  


“Because I can’t just let you die,” I whispered, hanging my head. “I have to do something, but… I don’t know what to do.”  


A moment later, a soft touch appeared on my cheek and I jumped slightly in surprise, but didn’t recoil away from it. I brought my attention back to Teersa to see her reaching toward me, her eyes glassy and seemingly only half-focused, but I could tell she still knew I was there.  


“I do not know if there is anything you can do,” she said softly. “If you have brought me here… All Mother may be calling me to her…”  


“No, that’s—that’s not it!” I said, shaking my head. “This place… it was created to bring about life. There has to be something in it to maintain it.”  


It was Teersa’s turn to shake her head in response, her eyes closing for a few moments before slowly reopening.  


“A mother may help her child heal… but she cannot cause the healing, herself.”  


I bit my lip against the tremble that had started to form in it, but Teersa seemed undeterred, and continued on despite my reaction.  


“This… this place… I always wondered what lay beyond. Aloy… can you show me?”  


I held back the sob that tried to escape from me and nodded, wiping my hands over my eyes, once again, before gently beginning to lift Teersa’s frail body in my arms, once again. As I slowly walked out of the side room and into the main chamber, the Matriarch let out a soft gasp, her head turning slowly to take it all in.  


“All of this… all of this so close to us… a temple of ruins…”  


“This place… is called ELEUTHIA,” I began softly. “It was created to bring life to the world, once upon a time.”  


“And so it still has.”  


I looked toward Teersa’s face, confusion etched into mine as the elderly woman smiled softly.  


“You were born here not long ago, in the grand scheme of the world… of my own life, even.”  


“You aren’t convinced of what Lansra always said, now?” I asked. “That I’m something else… something less than human?”  


“I have never doubted what I have said,” she replied, her voice growing raspier with each word. “You are not any less so. You have ties to the beginning of the Nora… the beginning of our lives. You are of ancient descent… and somehow… I always knew it.”  


She slowly reached toward my face, once again, running her mud-soaked hand over my cheek.  


“You will be the one to bring the Nora into a new age.”  


“I-I don’t… I can’t lead anyone,” I stuttered.  


“Of course you can,” she managed, her voice barely above a whisper. “You are the example others should strive to be. Anointed.”  


“I’m not… a god, Teersa…”  


“You don’t have to be.”  


She shook her head, her eyes slowly drifting closed.  


“You don’t have to be…”  


With that, she took a deep breath, only to exhale slowly a moment later. After that, I waited a few moments, but I couldn’t hear her inhale, again. A sob welled up from my chest, bursting free before I had a chance to stop it. My vision grew blurry as I slowly stepped back from the edge of the walkway, my legs feeling as if they might give out at any second. As my back hit the wall behind me, my knees finally buckled and I began to slide to the floor, finally coming to a stop once I felt the cold surface beneath me.  


My eyes slid closed as I tilted my head forward, pressing my chin against my chest. The sounds of my own sobs reached me as if I were listening to them from a distance, almost as if my mind couldn’t comprehend I could make such a sound. Suddenly, a soft pressure on my shoulder brought me back to reality and my eyes shot open, once again.  


I looked to Teersa first, as if expecting that she hadn’t really gone, but her eyes remained closed and her body was as still and limp as before. My gaze then turned to my right shoulder, where I found a hand atop it. At first, the skin color made me wonder if Varl or Sona had followed me into the facility, after all, but as my eyes travelled upward, I found a different face, but one that felt no less unfamiliar.  


“I know it’s difficult, child,” the image of Samina said softly, “but you have done all you can.”  


I began to shake my head, looking away from the image of the Ancient woman, although the pressure of her touch on my shoulder seemed to remain.  


“I thought…”  


“I know… I know…”  


I leaned forward, pressing my face into the furred clothing of the elderly Matriarch, not caring that it was wet to the touch. A few moments later, another touch seemed to appear on my left shoulder and I slowly began to lift my head, once again. As I did, I caught a splash of red and instantly, felt a fire build in my chest.  


“Hey, I’m sorry…”  


“You!”  


The soft voice was cut off by my sudden exclamation, the echoes of my own voice reverberating about the large room for several seconds afterward. I carefully laid Teersa’s body beside me, before leaping to my feet, towering over the image of Elisabet who looked up at me with a bewildered expression.  


“You could have helped!”  


“What do you mean?”  


“If you’re in my—in my head, like you said before, then you could have helped!”  


The image rose to her feet, her look fading to something more like confusion.  


“I told you, this place—”  


“Yeah, you just said it wouldn’t work!” I spat. “You didn’t even fucking try!”  


The image of Elisabet’s face hardened as her jaw clenched.  


“You and I both know that’s not how this works.”  


“We don’t know anything!” I screamed. “I’m you—you’re me—but we’re both here?! I’ve—I’ve been able to do things you knew before—why not now?!”  


“I didn’t _decide_ to do those things before, and decide _not_ to do them now,” the image shot back.  


“And yet, what, you _decided_ to be here now, like this?”  


The image of Elisabet ground her teeth as she stared back at me, her hands clenching into fists at her sides.  


“Aloy, stop. Calm down—”  


“Don’t you fucking tell me to _calm down_!”  


I suddenly stepped forward, placing both hands in the center of her chest and shoving her backward. The feeling of the cloth from her jacket under my hands felt entirely real, along with the weight of her body, and I found that as soon as a shiver ran down my spine, a feeling of intense fire followed soon after.  


“I’m not against you!” the image of Elisabet snapped. “I wish I could have helped, but I don’t know how I could have.”  


“You’re supposed to be some kind of genius,” I shot back. “You could have figured something out!”  


“I wasn’t a doctor who heals people, Aloy,” she said. “I barely know more than how to put a bandage on a cut or take care of a mild fever.”  


“But there’s all this technology here!” I continued, gesturing to the facility around me. “There has to be something here that was designed to help people. Humans lived here for a time, too.”  


“And it was not equipped for any sort of serious injury then, either,” she said.  


“So what would happen if one of those kids had badly hurt themselves?”  


The image of Elisabet looked uncomfortable, but finally sighed, shrugging and throwing her hands up to either side of her.  


“I don’t know.”  


“What?!” I snapped. “What do you mean you don’t know? You built this place!”  


“I helped _design_ it, yes, but I guess that was one area we didn’t think about all that much,” she explained. “There was basic first aid available, like for cuts and scrapes, fevers, minor illnesses, that sort of stuff, but… I guess we just hoped no one fell and broke an arm or anything.”  


I felt my lower lip begin to quiver, once again, and I clenched my jaw to try to hold it back.  


“I’m sorry, kiddo… we couldn’t think of absolutely everything… especially not a thousand years in advance.”  


I wanted to scream so many more things at her, reach out and strike her again, anything… but instead all I managed to do was let out a growl that quickly turned into a wailing scream as I ran my hands through my hair. My legs felt weak, once again, as I staggered to the side until I hit the wall beside me. I slowly sank to the floor, gripping the braids in my hair tightly as I tried to hold in the sobs and screams that still wanted to escape.  


After a few moments sitting against the wall, I felt a presence beside me and, a moment later, what felt like an arm across my shoulders. I slowly lifted my head to look to the left and found the image of Elisabet seated beside me.  


“I feel… helpless…” I managed, my voice barely a sliver of its normal strength and volume.  


“I know… I know all too well,” Elisabet sighed.  


A strange sound drew my attention away from her, and as I turned toward it, I found myself staring at a wooden desk, set against what appeared to be a wall of glass behind it, although only darkness appeared beyond. Everything about it seemed to be still for several long moments, but motion on the top of the desk brought my attention to it, once again. It was a figure that I had missed before, slumped over the wooden surface with her head buried in her arms.  


I watched for several long moments in silence until something running down the back of my throat prompted me to clear it. At the sudden sound, the figure began to stir and I froze, once again. Finally, when she lifted her head, my guess was proven correct.  


An Elisabet somewhere in age between the taunting, antagonistic one and the woman seated beside me, the same one I had seen in recordings and in my visions of Zero Dawn, rubbed at her eyes tiredly. Her hair just barely came below her shoulders, and I noted a similar, soft top to the one she had worn in the vision of Ted Faro’s office, although this one was a deep, burnt red color.  


The Elisabet at the desk remained with her hands over her face for several long moments before slowly dragging them down toward her chin. Dark bags hung under her eyes and I could clearly make out the numerous red veins coloring the white portion of each. She looked incredibly worn down, almost as I remembered from looking in the mirror during our visions before, but… something was different here.  


The image seemed to stare through me, her eyes glazed and vacant, for several long moments before she slowly turned to something at the right side of her desk. My gaze followed hers to find a bottle half-full of a rather clear, amber liquid. A short glass sat beside the larger bottle, a thin layer of the same amber liquid still in the bottom. Elisabet slowly took hold of the bottle and began to tilt it to pour more, but as she did I noticed how her hand seemed to be shaking.  


Her name began to form on my tongue, but I found myself unable to speak it at the last moment, instead prompting me to swallow thickly and continue to watch in silence.  


She remained silent, as well, pouring until the short glass was almost entirely full before tipping the bottle upright and placing it on the desk, once again. Her motions seemed almost mechanical as she took hold of the glass and raised it to her lips, taking a long sip before holding it in front of her, swirling the liquid in it slowly. A small beep, similar to the sound that had first drawn my attention, sounded from somewhere nearby and I jumped, looking around for signs of danger, but no glowing eyes or charging mechanical beasts appeared from the darkness behind her, or along the walkway beside me. Instead, a distorted voice began to play from somewhere on the desk.  


“Miss Sobeck, this is Doctor Mokhov calling from Carson Tahoe Regional. We had you listed as your mother’s emergency contact, and… unfortunately I’m calling with bad news.”  


The Elisabet at the desk took another long sip of her drink as I finally began to notice more fine details about her appearance. Dried, salty trails led down her cheeks, while her fingers sported a fine coating of a smudged, dark substance. The skin around her eyes was red and puffy, as well. She had been crying.  


“Miriam was involved in an… an accident,” the recording continued, the man in it sounding incredibly tired, as well. “Her car was struck by an oncoming vehicle. Paramedics brought her in as quickly as they could but… she had lost too much blood already. I’m sorry, Elisabet… she passed away about half an hour ago, and we were unable to revive her.”  


The message continued on, but I had stopped paying attention, the walkway in Eleuthia and the room around the image of Elisabet at the desk seemingly fading away as I felt my stomach sink and my heart pause for a moment. Her eyes were closed and I could see a new set of tears beginning to leak from them, her hands holding the glass finally falling still. After several long moments, I became aware that the recording had come to a stop. Total silence filled the space around me until I cleared my throat, once again.  


“Elisabet…?”  


Suddenly, she let out a gut-wrenching sound somewhere between a sob and a scream, not unlike what I had uttered moments ago. Her head hung forward, once again, as she brought the glass down on the desk with a loud slam, some of the liquid inside spilling over the top. I recoiled at the sudden outburst, but found myself unable to look away. She was muttering something into her arm, but I couldn’t make out any distinct words from where I sat.  


“I never forgave myself.”  


I jumped at the voice beside me, whirling to face it, only to find the older Elisabet still seated beside me, her eyes also fixed on the other image of herself.  


“F-for what?” I finally managed.  


“Not being there.”  


“Being where?”  


“Just… _there_ ,” she sighed, shaking her head and letting her hair fall in her face. “I was working late in my office the night I was supposed to go home and see her. I was _supposed_ to be on a flight two hours earlier, but I had just one more project to finish up…”  


The older Elisabet’s voice was growing rough and choked as she spoke, leading her to eventually clear her throat as she lifted her head, brushing her hair aside with one hand.  


“I hadn’t seen her in six months… and I never got to again.”  


My own throat began to close up as I felt a wave of sadness roll over me, the nearly crippling feeling returning from only moments ago.  


“Your mother…”  


“Yeah,” she nodded slowly. “You met her.”  


Confusion creased my face.  


“I did? How?”  


“In that ‘dream’ you had,” she said, tracing lines in the air as she spoke. “It was one of my memories.”  


“I… I thought so…”  


“It was the first day I was back from Carnegie Mellon,” she said. “Well… everything except for the… y’know…”  


I nodded, images of the same Elisabet beside me skewered on the end of a Corruptor’s tail flashing before my eyes.  


“I felt so helpless, too,” she continued. “I was… miles away… but I shouldn’t have been. I wanted… _so badly_ … to have been there… to hold her as…”  


Her voice caught in her throat as she squeezed her eyes shut tightly.  


“To let her know that she wasn’t alone… but…”  


The weight of her arm on my shoulders suddenly felt much heavier as I swallowed the lump that had formed in my throat. Finally, the image of Elisabet beside me opened her eyes, turning toward me, again.  


“We always wish we could have done more… but sometimes we can’t.”  


My own will finally broke and I let out a choked sob, leaning toward the image beside me. The feeling of her clothing, the warmth of her body, all of it felt so real as I buried my face against her chest. Arms wrapped around my back and gently squeezed me, firm enough to feel secure while not strong enough to bring the pain from my injuries roaring back to the front of my mind. A moment later, a gently touch appeared on the back of my head, slowly sliding down my hair to the tips at my shoulder blades, only to disappear and return to the top of my head, once again, repeating the motion. I slowly wrapped my own arms around the shape I felt before me, squeezing tightly and inhaling deeply through my nose.  


I didn’t want it to disappear as quickly as it always did.  


“It’ll have to, kiddo… at some point.”  


“No… no…” I muttered, shaking my head as much as I could with my face firmly pressed into her jacket.  


“The world can’t stop just for us, I’m afraid.”  


“Fuck the world.”  


“Aloy…”  


With a heavy sigh, my grip relaxed somewhat.  


“They accused me of being the cause of her death,” I mumbled.  


“They’re wrong.”  


“They won’t see it that way.”  


“Then you’ll have to convince them.”  


“I’m no good at that.”  


Elisabet scoffed as I felt a hand gently slide under my chin, lifting my face from the warmth of her embrace so that my gaze met hers.  


“You can be,” she said softly but forcefully. “It’s in your blood.”  


She offered a small smile before a moment later, I blinked and she was gone. I blinked even more rapidly as I looked around, only to find myself still seated against the wall of the Eleuthia walkway, but Teersa’s body still lay across my lap. Confusion settled over me for a moment or two before I took a deep breath and let out a heavy sigh.  


Of course… all of that had been another vision of some kind.  


“ _Does that make it any less real?_ ”  


I didn’t want to actually answer that, so instead I slowly began to get to my feet, rolling to my knees first, and then staggering into a standing position. Once I was upright, I glanced around the abandoned facility one more time before turning back to the walkway toward the entrance. My steps were much slower than on the way in, leaving me feeling like it took an eternity to reach the large doorway, once again.  


As soon as I stepped between two, small barricades that formed the three “lines” into the room, the door began to automatically open, the heavy locks disengaging with heavy clunking sounds before the large structures slid aside.  


Almost immediately, I was confronted with the sight of the tribe’s eager faces turning toward me, several people scrambling to their feet and craning their necks to get a better view. With a heavy sigh, I walked onto the raised platform, Teersa’s body in my arms suddenly feeling much heavier. As I reached the top of the stairs, and the light from inside the facility was blocked by the door, once again, those at the front of the crowd began to notice the shape in my arms.  


“Aloy!”  


My eyes immediately caught sight of the figure who had stepped from the crowd, walking quickly toward me and I swallowed thickly. Varl came to a stop at the foot of the short steps, his eyes fixed on Teersa’s body.  


“Is she…?”  


I took a deep breath in through my nose before nodding.  


Varl looked as if he had been physically struck, taking a step or two back as I began to slowly descend toward him. At first, I thought he would continue to shy away from me as I drew closer, but he remained where he was.  


“I tried, but…”  


His jaw was set resolutely, but he nodded in response. At least he hadn’t started screaming, as I had thought.  


That would come a moment later.  


“What have you done with her? Is she alive?”  


Lansra quickly made her way through the crowd, pushing one or two Braves aside as she did. When she was only feet away, she came to a stop, eyes fixed on Teersa’s face. I remained where I was as the elderly Matriarch closed the last few steps with slow, tentative movements. Finally, she stopped just before me, staring down into the face of her sister. Silence fell over the room for several long moments before she slowly raised her head to look up at me.  


“What… have… you… done?!”  


Her volume and tone grew more intense with each word, until the last rung about the room almost as loud as Thunderjaw’s roar.  


“You are no Anointed! You are no blessing from All Mother! You are an ancient curse, sent to punish us!”  


My jaw clenched tighter with each passing word she uttered, until finally I was unable to hold back the fire that had been building in my chest.  


“You’re right, I’m _not_ your Anointed!”  


I turned and gingerly placed Teersa’s body on the edge of the raised platform before turning back to the fuming Lansra, as well as the rest of the surviving Nora.  


“I am no curse, either!” I spat, stepping aggressively toward her. “I came back here to save you—all of you… to prevent death, not cause it.”  


“And yet, there lies one of my sisters, dead!”  


“I tried to save her!” I shrieked, stepping even closer to Lansra and noticing how several Braves took cautionary steps forward, but kept their distance when I stopped short, backing away a step or two. “I tried, but… I wasn’t strong enough… wasn’t smart enough.”  


“If you could truly commune with the goddess, you could have asked for her help, her strength, and yet you stand here and say you were denied?”  


“I wasn’t—!” I began, but stopped short, letting out a frustrated huff and running my hands through my hair, feeling how some of the braids were starting to come apart. “I am not the goddess, myself, I am only human!”  


Even Lansra didn’t seem to have a comeback to that, so I seized the moment to continue.  


“You can call me the Anointed, Seeker, whatever you may wish, but that does nothing to actually change who I am,” I spat, lifting my gaze to the gathered crowd, as well. “Words and titles do not denote greatness, or importance… only actions can do that. I have done nothing but act to serve the world—to serve the goddess, however you want to call it—and yet again and again you question my worth—my _humanity_?”  


As my eyes swept over the gathered crowd, I saw a wide range of emotions across their faces. Some still showed signs of sadness, others something like revelation, while only two still showed signs of resolute sternness. I quickly turned from Resh back to Lansra, who looked as if she were about to begin another tirade, but I cut her off.  


“I am a human,” I began, “not a Nora—nor a Carja, an Oseram, a Banuk, or any other tribe. I am a person in this world… the world that extends beyond the Nora borders, with all those other tribes and their people, as well as those outside any tribe… all of them just as good with as many hopes and dreams and families as you. I’ve seen so much of it and… all of it is in a very real danger. You know this—”  


I focused on Lansra and Jezza specifically as I clenched my hands into fists at my sides.  


“—because I told you when I last left the Nora lands. I told you this threat may be coming, and I tried—I tried _everything_ —to stop it… but I’m only one person against an army.”  


Silence still fell over the crowd as I closed my eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath in before letting it out slowly.  


“Just as they marched on the Sacred Lands, they will turn on the rest of the world. They may have been stopped this time… but if they return again? The Nora have already suffered so much loss… do you think you could stop an army with even greater numbers than that which came today?”  


I purposefully looked to several of the Braves, who either looked back at me with grim expressions, their jaws set, or to the ground.  


“All of it—that larger world and all of its people—is worth fighting for, just as the Sacred Lands are, and I will _not_ stop fighting for any of it until the threat is gone, or my heart no longer beats.”  


I finally turned back to Lansra, whose expression had begun to change, even if ever so slightly.  


“So whether you call me a curse, or your Anointed, I won’t simply let that evil destroy the Nora, nor do I wish it upon you.”  


After several long moments of silence, an unexpected voice spoke up from beside me.  


“She’s right.”  


I whirled around to find Varl stepping closer, a slightly glassy look in his eyes for a moment before he blinked and the usual alertness reappeared as he glanced around at the crowd, as well.  


“Despite how close to the goddess she may or may not be, she is still one person,” he continued, pausing for a moment before turning to me. “How can we help?”  


I stared back at him for a moment or two before swallowing the lump in my throat and glancing around at the crowd, once more.  


“If you can fight—and are willing—go to Meridian. I will meet you there.”  


Nervous glances appeared from the crowd, many of them clearly uncomfortable with the idea of leaving the Sacred Lands. A moment later, another surprising voice appeared from behind me and I turned to face it, as well.  


“If this threat is as great as Aloy says it is, then so it shall be.”  


Jezza stood with her hands raised over the crowd, her jaw set as she glanced around, before finally settling her gaze on me.  


“Go to Meridian. For her. For the Nora. For the goddess.”  


I stared back at her for several long moments before nodding curtly, which the Matriarch returned. As I glanced over at Lansra, I found that rather than staring me down, as I expected, she had turned her attention to the body of her fallen sister, moving closer to the platform before the door. As the crowd began to murmur and talk amongst themselves, I started to move toward her, but was stopped by Jezza in my path a few steps later.  


“Aloy, I… was she…”  


I looked over at the elder Nora, taking in her distraught expression before she took a deep breath, composing herself to look over at me, again.  


“In her final moments, was she at peace?”  


A hard lump appeared in my throat, preventing me from actually speaking, so I simply nodded, the beginnings of tears forming in the corners of my eyes, once again.  


“Good… I did not want her final moments to be in fear and pain… as before that ancient demon.”  


With that, she allowed me to pass, and I approached Lansra and Teersa’s body slowly. As my footsteps approached, the other Matriarch did not look back, but I still came to a stop a few feet to her side. She held a shaking hand over Teersa’s face for a few moments after I came to a stop, before gently running the back of her hand across the side of her face, trying to wipe away the mud that stained her skin.  


“Lansra, I…” I began, but hesitated as the woman continued about her task of trying to wipe clean her sister’s face, “I wanted you to know… she…”  


“Did she meet the goddess?”  


I paused, taken off-guard by her question.  


How was I even supposed to answer that?  


“ _Sometimes not quite the truth isn’t a lie._ ”  


With a deep breath in through my nose, I nodded.  


“She did.”  


“And… she accepted her?”  


“Yes.”  


Lansra nodded, continuing to wipe at the mud, although I was reasonably certain there was no way she would actually get it all off that way.  


“Then perhaps… All Mother still does reside within this Mountain.”  


I bit my lip for a moment before nodding slowly, beginning to turn away.  


“Do not let her memory be in vain.”  


I paused for a moment, turning to look back at the elder Nora, but she still did not look at me. Despite that, a warm feeling began to build in my chest, not like the raging inferno that had taken residence moments ago when addressing the tribe, but like the warm fire of a hearth on a cold evening. A small smile began to tug at my lips, despite everything, and I began to turn away from the Matriarch, once again.  


“I won’t.”


	25. The Bitter Climb

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to June, y'all.
> 
> So... last week... yeah.
> 
> We're getting to the main final stretch here, so I hope y'all will stick around for it and... wherever it may go.
> 
> Anyway, shall we get to it?

As I began to move away from the door to the ELEUTHIA facility, I was confronted by two familiar faces, and I still found myself growing tense.  


“Aloy, I…” Varl began, but was cut off by Teb, who stepped forward.  


“You returned,” he said warmly, a wide smile on his face.  


“I-I did, yeah…”  


“I’m so glad you did,” he continued, stepping forward and holding his arms out.  


I hesitantly stepped forward and returned the embrace, which only lasted for a few moments, but by the strength in his grip I knew it was sincere. As he released me, Varl awkwardly shuffled his feet, clearing his throat.  


“I—uh—thank you.”  


“For what?”  


“For returning.”  


“You’re not going to tell me you ‘had it’ and I just helped?”  


His jaw clenched for a moment or two before he sighed, hanging his head.  


“No, Aloy, I’m not. We were on our last legs, and then you came charging in out of nowhere, and you dared to take on that Thunderjaw all by yourself. I… I didn’t do that, so…”  


“It’s okay,” I said quickly, a tight feeling appearing in my chest.  


I hadn’t actually meant to insult him, but…  


“No, I—when you left last… I was an ass,” he said. “I’m sorry.”  


I stared back at him, blinking in something like disbelief and surprise as he continued to look anywhere but back at me. This wasn’t what I was expecting. At all.  


“You—I, uh—thanks?”  


He finally looked back over at me, a smirk tugging at his lips as I laughed nervously.  


“Look at that, made the Anointed blush.”  


My jaw instantly set and he raised his hands defensively.  


“I’m only kidding.”  


With a heavy sigh, I placed my hands on my hips and glanced between the two men before me.  


“So… will I be seeing you two in Meridian?”  


“Absolutely,” Teb replied almost instantly.  


He was honestly not the one I had expected to answer first.  


“I may not be the best in a fight, but… I can help in other ways,” he explained. “I believe you when you say those who attacked us are a bigger threat. I, for one, do not wish to see the rest of the world burn like the Sacred Lands have.”  


A lump formed in my throat as I offered a nod in response, unable to actually say anything.  


“Yeah… me, too,” Varl added, nodding toward Teb.  


I looked over at him for several long moments before the three of us broke out into laughter.  


“But, actually,” he added, “you will have my spear and my bow at Meridian. You believe this will be their next target?”  


I took a deep breath, letting out a heavy sigh as I rubbed at my eyes with one hand.  


“If I’m right… it will be their only, and last, target.”  


“Their last target?” Teb questioned.  


“If they succeed in Meridian… the effects will reach as far as the Sacred Lands, if not farther.”  


Both of them fell silent, their expressions souring as my lips pulled into a thin line.  


“Then you will most definitely find us there,” Varl finally offered, glancing over toward Teb, who nodded resolutely.  


“Thank you… both,” I sighed, stepping forward and placing my hands on their shoulders. “I just… I… I hope I’m not asking you to die.”  


Varl suddenly placed his hand on my shoulder, as well, his grip as strong as his expression.  


“Then so be it.”  


Teb nodded, placing his hand on my opposite shoulder.  


“We said we would be there, and that means regardless of the stakes.”  


I glanced between them before laughing and shaking my head.  


“When did this happen?”  


“What?”  


“The last time I was here, you two were at each other’s throats.”  


They exchanged wary glances before Varl sighed.  


“I already apologized once, Aloy…”  


“I’m just giving you both a hard time,” I laughed, shaking their shoulders before releasing my grip, which they followed in turn.  


“Will you head to Meridian now?” Teb asked.  


“I—I think so. There are some things I need to ready in preparation.”  


“We will need to help here for a short time, but we will meet you there as soon as we can,” Varl said, nodding.  


After a few moments of awkward silence, I nodded, my fingers instinctually fidgeting with my clothing.  


“Don’t let us stop you from saving the world.”  


I offered an awkward nod in response before slipping past the two of them. Several others nodded and muttered sayings that sounded like greetings or well wishes as I tried to nod in the direction of each one, and ended up feeling like some kind of hyper-active bird. Finally, I broke free of the main gathering of Nora and made my way up the sloped tunnel to the barricaded entrance. As soon as I was back outside, I paused for a moment, breathing in the scent of the wet dirt and grass around me, the rain from earlier having picked up into a steady drizzle by this point.  


As soon as I let the breath out, my Focus sprung to life, quickly revealing a figure outlined in blue and purple light before me. My jaw instantly clenched as I stared back at the image of Sylens before me.  


“You continue to surprise and impress me,” he began.  


“Oh yeah? How so?”  


“For one, how you continue to fight as if you are not injured.”  


As soon as he mentioned it, the pain exploded in my side and back, but I only clenched my jaw tighter to avoid showing any outward reaction.  


“Secondly, your persistence in the face of insurmountable odds, and perhaps to a lesser extent logic.”  


“What’s your point?”  


“You refuse to lie down and let the world have its way. There may be hope, yet.”  


“I thought I was the _only_ hope?” I shot back, my tone exaggerated and dramatic as I purposely stalked through the image of Sylens, heading around the Thunderjaw and toward the path back down to what remained of Mother’s Watch.  


The interface closed around me, but his voice continued.  


“And in some respects, you are.”  


“Somehow I doubt you’re here just to blow sunshine up my ass and motivate me, though.”  


He paused for a moment, and I could almost picture the curious expression on his face, before he continued.  


“In seeking to stop HADES, you are forgetting one key requirement.”  


“And what’s that?”  


“A weapon.”  


I frowned, casting my eyes around the smoldering remnants of the Nora settlement at the base of the trail, somewhat thankful that it was now empty as I continued to talk with Sylens.  


“I have some already.”  


“And none of them will do any good against an AI.”  


My teeth ground audibly as I came to a stop in the center of the open ground, bracing my hands on my hips as the Focus interface came to life, once more. This time, however, it was not an image of Sylens that greeted me, but one of a woman in a long, flowing dress that seemed to grow a light green color.  


My breath caught for a moment as a flood of memories tore through my mind, the hints of a voice that felt both all too familiar and incredibly distant echoing in my ears. A few moments later, however, I realized that the voice was actually real, and the image was moving.  


“ _GAIA?_ ”  


Her name was at the tip of my tongue, but I held it at the last moment when I recognized what she was saying.  


It was the recording she had left me— _us_ —in the Eleuthia facility… part of it, at least.  


“…to the ruins of GAIA Prime. Find the control room, and within it: the Master Override. This will give you the power to purge HADES—so long as you find a way to wield it. Do not attempt repair of—”  


The image of the AI halted mid-word, her dress a brilliant red and half-dissolved into fragments of light. Although she had stopped speaking in the recording, a strange, broken version of her voice rang in my ears, the tone mangled and garbled to the point where it was almost unrecognizable, but I remembered it all too well.  


“Not—safe—not—yet—”  


“ _The core…_ ”  


A warning about it, yes.  


“ _That could mean—_ ”  


It was in a dream—a vision—that doesn’t mean any small piece of her exists to communicate, for now.  


“ _The Focus…_ ”  


Wait, what about it?  


“So as you can see—”  


Sylens’ voice in my ear suddenly jolted me out of my thoughts, causing me to start in surprise. When my vision refocused before me, I found his image where GAIA’s had stood moments ago, a smirk beginning to form on his lips.  


“—you are missing quite a crucial weapon.”  


“Okay, so I’ll get it.”  


“As you should. As an old phrase goes: the clock is ticking, Aloy.”  


With that, the image flickered out of existence and the Focus interface closed with a familiar sound. I was left staring blankly at the open ground in the middle of Mother’s Watch for several long seconds before I hurriedly brought the interface back up, tapping it with my fingers. Once it had come to life, I hurriedly navigated to the map function, sweeping across the grasslands of the Embrace until the scenery on it began to turn to hues of brown and red at the very edge of the Sundom’s desert. Moving North from the marker that indicated Daytower, I quickly found the small, frozen mountain pass that led to the rectangular marker at the very end of it. As my fingers hovered over the symbol, the name of it appeared.  
GAIA Prime.  


“ _He wasn’t kidding about the time thing._ ”  


I know. Good thing I knew how to be quick.  


With that, I set the waypoint and closed the map, leaving the interface open until I had located the yellow diamond that indicated my objective. I tried not to acknowledge the sinking feeling in my stomach at the large number below it, and quickly closed the interface.  


As soon as I stepped through the wide-open gate that had previously guarded the entrance to All Mother Mountain, I was greeted by the loud huffing and neighing of the Strider I had rode in to my right. With a grin, I hurried over to it and pulled myself atop it, the pain across my black flaring enough that the beginnings of tears formed in my eyes, but I quickly wiped them away with the back of one hand before urging the Strider onward toward the main trail behind us.  


As I tore back through the Sacred Lands, I found corpses of Corruptors and Eclipse, but no living ones, and I breathed a momentary sigh of relief.  


“ _They’re all gone because they’re going to Meridian._ ”  


One thing at a time…  


The trip back to the Main Embrace Gate was made much more miserable by the steady rain that only seemed to grow stronger as I continued onward. While it lashed at my exposed face, hands, and arms, it primarily created a problem through making the metal of the Strider’s armor and the cords from the back of its head incredibly slick and it was subsequently difficult to maintain any sort of grip. To counteract the slippery metal, I simply squeezed my hands as tightly around the metal cables as I could. This worked at first, but after only a few minutes of riding, I had to relinquish, somewhat, as my fingers had begun to go numb and my grip was faltering, regardless.  


Within an hour or two, though, we had charged through the gate out of the northernmost section of Nora territory and entered the much drier expanse of dust that was the desert. As we came to a fork in the path, I brought the Strider to a stop, taking the moment to shake my hands against the half-numb feeling that had come over them. My teeth were chattering uncontrollably as I raised a shaking hand to my temple, tapping the Focus to bring its interface to life. Almost immediately, I saw the yellow diamond overlaid on the rocky terrain to my right and let out a heavy sigh.  


“Into the mountains, we go.”  


With a loud “yah,” I urged the Strider into motion, once again, guiding it down the branch to the right. Almost immediately, the incline began to increase and the machine’s pace slowed ever so slightly as it fought to gallop over the loose sand and gravel beneath it. Thankfully, the sun had firmly begun to rise by that point, and its first, orange rays began to dry and warm the soaked fur and leather clothing across my back, as well as start to give some warmth back to the exposed skin of my arms.  


Just as I was getting momentarily lost in the feeling of warmth and the slight relief it brought, we rounded a corner of the trail, tracing the edge of a large rock formation, and I nearly fell off the Strider out of surprise. A walled settlement had suddenly appeared ahead of us, seemingly out of nowhere. At first, I began to wonder if it was abandoned, but small curls of smoke rising into the air above it, along with hints of motion along the top of its walls, gave away the presence of inhabitants.  


“ _Friendly?_ ”  


Didn’t know. Didn’t really care.  


I guided the Strider in a wide berth around the left side of the settlement, its pace slowing even more as we left the somewhat well-packed trail behind for the truly loose sand and rocks of the desert. The hints of shouts arose from the settlement to my right, but I only spared a passing glance as I guided the Strider back toward the path that continued on the far side of it. As I did, however, I caught sight of a lone figure standing at the edge of the closest segment of the wall, remaining almost entirely still as they stared out at me. They made no move to raise an alarm or weapon, but instead seemed to wave in greeting.  


A lone voice called out across the open ground, but the pounding of the Strider’s hooves and the clinking of the metal from both the machine and the various pouches about my person made it impossible to make out any actual words. Despite that, I still found myself raising one hand in return, offering a slow wave before quickly gripping the Strider’s cables as it jerked to one side, its right front hoof slipping on a somewhat larger rock that I hadn’t been watching out for.  


Moments later, however, we had evened out, once again, and I breathed a sigh of relief, returning my attention to the path ahead.  


The journey continued without any significant incidents for another hour or so, before I suddenly became aware that the sandy, rocky terrain around me had begun to give way to grass, trees, and towering peaks to either side of me. Although the sun was high overhead by this point, the wind that hurtled down the pass ahead of me easily made it feel half the temperature it had moments ago. A shiver wracked my entire body as I tried to keep my teeth from chattering, once again.  


“Bad time to have lost that cloak…” I muttered, feeling a momentary pang of sadness in my chest at the realization that it had most likely burned to ashes along with the Behemoth in the Sun Ring. “Can never hold onto a nice thing…”  


“ _It wasn’t your fault._ ”  


Didn’t make it any less true.  


I was snapped out of my reverie by the realization that I was hurtling directly toward a sheer, rock wall, and I quickly yanked on the Strider’s cables, bringing it to a stop only yards from impact.  


“I thought you would have turned out of the way or something,” I muttered, patting the machine on the neck before sighing and looking about the area.  


The path seemed to come to a dead end at an old, decrepit campfire before the rock wall, although two vague pathways led off to either side. Neither looked incredibly well-traveled, however. Suddenly, my eye caught sight of a bright yellow object embedded into the rocky surface and I began to trace a path upward from it. Several other objects with similarly bright, yellow rope wound about them led up toward the top of the sheer cliff face. As I craned my neck to look up toward the top, a feeling of familiarity began to come over me.  


“The beginning of the Bitter Climb…”  


I guess I had made it, after all.  


With a groan, I dismounted the Strider, pacing about the area in front of the campfire as the blood began to flow normally to my legs, once again. After the strange, prickling feeling had subsided, I let out a heavy sigh and turned back to the climbing handholds.  


“ _You think you can make it right now?_ ”  


Didn’t have much of a choice.  


Also, why was this suddenly _my_ job?  


“ _You know why._ ”  


With a heavy sigh and a roll of my eyes, I strode forward, rolling my shoulders several times before hopping toward the handhold, taking a firm grip as I braced my feet against the wall beneath me. Almost immediately, the intense pain in my back came back in full force, but I simply grit my teeth and began to brace myself to leap to the next man-made hold. As soon as I pushed off toward it, I knew something was off. My fingers fell inches short of the wooden hold, and I quickly found myself falling backward through the air, arms and legs windmilling helplessly. Moments later, I slammed into the hard ground with a scream of pain, arching my back almost immediately as I rolled onto my right side.  


“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!”  


My jaw was clenched so tightly that I was afraid some teeth might crack, but I forced myself to release it slightly as I sucked in gasping breaths through the slight gap that had formed.  


“ _You need to rest._ ”  


“Don’t… don’t have time,” I growled.  


“ _You’re going to kill yourself doing this._ ”  


“Knew what—what I was getting into.”  


“ _Will you stop being so fucking stubborn for once?!_ ”  


No. It was in my blood, after all.  


“ _Not fair._ ”  


With a short, pained laugh, I began to push myself to my hands and knees, a groan slowly forcing its way out of me. I remained there for several moments, staring down at the ground between my hands before taking a deep breath and placing my legs beneath me. Upon standing, I staggered to the side for a few steps before I managed to catch myself and regain my balance.  


“ _You’re seriously going to try again right now?_ ”  


I already said—  


“ _No time._ ”  


Exactly.  


When I turned back to the handholds in the cliff face, my entire body seemed to try to protest, pain and fatigue weighing on my limbs like I had suddenly strapped ten pounds of metal to each of them. My jaw clenched as I took my first step toward the rock wall, only for my knees to buckle and send me back to the ground with a cry of surprise. I caught myself at the last second, managing to keep myself in a kneeling position, but when I got to my feet, once again, I staggered to the right badly enough that I tripped over my own feet and fell, my right shoulder slamming into the ground with my full body weight behind it.  


A cry of pain escaped me, but it quickly turned into a scream of frustration as I slammed my fist on the ground before me, burying my face in the crook of my shoulder as best I could.  


“ _There’s no reason to be ashamed of needing to rest…_ ”  


I’d never felt this weak before.  


“ _You’ve never been this injured before._ ”  


It didn’t matter. Weak was not something I was, or could be, or should be.  


“ _You’re not._ ”  


Then why the hell was I lying on the ground at the base of the Bitter Climb, unable to even stand for more than a few seconds?  


“ _Your body is trying to tell you something, and you’re ignoring it._ ”  


It was _my_ body for a reason, right?  


“After everything, you can still say that so confidently?”  


I lifted my head groggily to take in the shape of a figure before me, crouched with their hands on their knees. The exact details of the image were blurry, but the voice was enough to know who it was.  


“Did you forget the bandit camp, with Ersa?”  


My jaw worked stiffly as the image of the young redhead came into focus, a smirk twisting her lips.  


“Or the Eclipse base with the Tallneck?”  


I remained silent, but began to try to push myself to a kneeling position. The effort to do so seemed much greater than usual, and I nearly collapsed, once again, but I managed to push through it and let out a heavy sigh as I sat back on my heels.  


“At best, you’re sharing it. At worst, you’ve borrowed it, just took something from another time and used it for yourself.”  


“ _Don’t listen to her._ ”  


“You say that like it was a choice,” I shot back, laughing dryly.  


“Was it not?”  


I glared back at her as the smirk began to spread wider.  


“It wasn’t a choice, that field—the hug…?”  


Confusion washed over me for several moments before an image flashed before my eyes. An open expanse of ground, the light much brighter than it felt like it should have been, a figure approaching from the distance…  


“Do you have a point?” I shot back, trying to inject enough venom into my voice to keep it from wavering.  


“The same as I always do,” the image shot back, smiling broadly, but not saying anything else.  


With a sigh, I began to get to my feet, but my entire body seemed to protest the motion.  


“The little voice in your head is right, this time,” she continued. “Normally I’d tell you that you should just go ahead and do it anyway, and tell you that you’re right, that you’re being weak right now… but I have a feeling that if you try to climb to the top of this wall right now, you’ll fall and die… and if you die…”  


She made a “poof” sound as she waved her hands before her.  


“I cease to exist, too.”  


“At least your motives are consistent,” I said, laughing dryly as I managed to stand, albeit rather unsteadily.  


I took several deep, slow breaths before beginning to pace before the old campfire and the entrance to the Bitter Climb. Despite however many laps I made about the small, open area, the shaking in my knees and hands never seemed to go away.  


“I told you…”  


“Shut up!”  


I whirled on the image of the young Elisabet, only to find her a foot or two from me, the same smug smirk fixed on her features. Before I could do or say anything, however, she reached forward and pressed the tip of her index finger into the center of my forehead. Her touch felt incredibly real, right down to the warmth of her skin, which was enough to send a shiver down my spine, but almost as soon as she did, I began to notice the edges of my vision growing dark. I began to stagger backward, the heaviness in my limbs returning in full force.  


“She’s right, you know,” the image began, following me as I tripped and stumbled backward. “You’re not listening to yourself. You’re too damn stubborn to even do that.”  


A moment later, the heel of my boot caught on something and I let out a cry of surprise as I fell backward. Something hard and cold slammed into my back and for a moment, the image of a Corruptor or some other large machine towering over me filled my mind, but as my hands reached behind me and found the rough surface of the rocky cliff, I realized that I wasn’t in any immediate danger of being skewered, shot, burnt, or blown up by a malicious machine. Instead, however, my eyelids began to droop more severely, bringing the darkness with them, and I began to sink toward the ground.  


“I guess this is what it takes, if two voices in your head weren’t persuasive enough.”  


The young Elisabet crouched before me, grinning as she began to reach toward my face. I didn’t have enough strength in my arms to raise them to bat her hand away as her fingers ran over my eyelids, firmly bringing them to a close.  


“Sweet dreams.”

 

The one blessing of the darkness I had fallen into was that at least the young, tormenting version of Elisabet didn’t follow into it, but I had only been “asleep” for what felt like a few minutes before I began to feel something sharp and tingling along my arms. Almost immediately, the rest of my senses began to rush in, quickly lifting me out of the void of unconsciousness until my eyes finally shot open and I whipped my head about. At first, it was impossible to make out any specific details of my surroundings, but a glowing light from nearby quickly drew my attention, and I locked onto it, blinking rapidly in an attempt to clear my vision. After a few moments, I realized that it was a singular, bright blue light, and my eyes widened further.  


My body tensed to fight or run away, but after a few more moments, the light didn’t turn yellow or red, but continued to remain fixed on me. Curiosity began to take over from the surprise and fear, until I was finally able to take in exactly what the light belonged to: the Strider I had ridden here earlier. With a heavy sigh, I ran one hand over my face, shaking my head slowly, before looking back up at the machine.  


“You scared the hell out of me,” I sighed, but the machine seemed to remain indifferent, turning back to the grass nearby and grazing among it.  


Now that I was no longer afraid of being pummeled to death, I turned my attention to more of my surroundings. The world was cast in a dark, orange glow, and for a moment I began to wonder if I had slept too long and this was just what it looked like when HADES had won, but I quickly began to realize that it wasn’t the color of fire, but simply the late afternoon, with the sunset soon to come.  


“I slept all day?”  


“ _You were exhausted and injured… you needed it._ ”  


I didn’t need to waste more time.  


With a heavy sigh, I began to drag myself to my feet, using the rock wall behind me for support. Once I was standing, I painfully stretched, raising my arms over my head and twisting my torso back and forth. The skin of my arms felt incredibly cold to the touch, and I soon found myself shivering and rubbing at them furiously.  


“Not called the Bitter Climb for nothing…”  


After pacing about the small, former campsite for a few moments, I took a deep breath, turning back to the handholds in the rock wall.  


“ _If you think you can do it now…_ ”  


I had to. Didn’t matter what I thought.  


We needed that Master Override.  


With a heavy exhalation, I approached the sheer surface ahead of me. When I drew within the last few feet, I didn’t allow myself to stop, but leapt toward the first handhold. I was easily able to reach it and take hold, planting my feet against the wall to both help support myself and prepare to leap to the next handhold. Aches and pains protested the actions throughout my body, but it didn’t feel nearly as strong as it had when I had first tried.  


That had to be a good sign.  


“ _Maybe…_ ”  


It had to be.  


With that, I set my eyes on the next wooden peg wrapped in bright, yellow rope and used the current handhold to push myself up toward it, pushing off the wall with my legs at the same time. This time I was able to grab hold and didn’t immediately crash back to the ground below, so I let out a short laugh before continuing up the others in a similar fashion. Within only a minute or so, I had rolled over the top of the cliff face and into a kneeling position, my breathing a little heavier than I would have liked, but alive and not feeling like I was about to immediately collapse, once again.  


“I was beginning to wonder if we were all doomed, after all.”  


My jaw clenched at the sound of Sylens’ voice in my ear, but instead of issuing a comeback, I simply pushed myself to my feet, scanning the small plateau I had arrived atop. A heavily damaged chunk of a metal structure was embedded into the rocky cliff face ahead of me, so I began to move toward it. The scenery was beginning to look a little familiar from the last time I had made the climb.  


“The way to the mountain will be hard.”  


“I did it once,” I snapped.  


“Ferocious machines still prowl every step of the climb,” he continued.  


“I thought I took care of them?”  


“More have returned.”  


“Corrupted?”  


“No, but still highly intolerant to humans.”  


“What’s new?” I muttered under my breath, approaching the end of what remained of the metal structure and eying a single beam that jutted from the wall just above my head.  


Without breaking step, I leapt toward it, gripping the freezing metal as tightly as I could and ignoring the burning sensation in my hands from where they touched it. With a groan, I was able to pull myself on top of the beam, placing my feet beneath me and holding my balance in a crouched position as best I could. My eyes traced the ledges in the rock ahead that I could use for handholds, creating a mental path to the top of the next section of the cliff face. Once I was certain I knew where to go, I took a deep breath and pushed off the metal beam.  


Any semblance of the ground fell away from beneath me as I reached toward the nearest ledge. My fingers finally wrapped around the section of rock and I came to a sudden halt, my shoulders greatly protesting the full weight of my body now being placed on them, but I managed to bring my feet up and brace them against the rocky surface to help support me, a moment later.  


The second leap would be more difficult, as I would have much less leverage to propel myself across the small chasm that separated the part of the wall I was currently clinging to from the last vertical segment leading to the much larger plateau ahead. With a deep breath, I tensed my legs, shifting my fingers’ grip on the rocky ledge. Finally, I shoved myself to the left, pushing my boots into the rock wall with as much traction as I could manage. As my legs straightened out, I felt myself flying across the open air, the world suddenly slowing to a crawl as I carefully aimed my reach with my hands toward the targeted ledge.  


A few moments later, I slammed into the rocky wall, but my fingers had wrapped firmly around the top of the small, rocky lip about halfway up the short, vertical segment of rock. A grunt of pain escaped my lips, but I managed to pull my legs beneath me, the soles of my boots scrabbling for purchase for a few moments before they found a decent enough grip. From there, the remaining climb up to the plateau was much easier, and I crawled over the top with a heavy sigh.  


Almost immediately, bright lights from up ahead drew my attention and I quickly brought up my Focus interface. Several machine outlines appeared across the open terrain ahead, including several Stalkers.  


“Perfect…”  


“I told you it would not be easy.”  


“Shut up.”  


The path through the fields crawling with machines ended up taking me longer than I remembered, with several close calls with a Watcher here and there almost giving away my position, but I finally managed to make my way up the various plateaus that constituted the Bitter Climb, until I finally crawled over the edge of the third or fourth sheer rock wall I was forced to climb, and found myself ankle-deep in snow, the white powder glowing silver under the moonlight that replaced the sun halfway up the climb.  


My teeth were chattering as I folded my arms over my chest, rubbing my upper arms furiously against the chill that felt as if it had settled in my very bones, itself.  


“Almost forgot what the sun feels like, already…”  


Suddenly, a distant screech echoed across the open ground and I froze in place, scanning the scene before me with just my eyes. Moments later, something materialized out of the flurries of snow, its enormous wings blowing them away as lightning crackled across its body. The Stormbird landed atop what seemed to be the ruins of an ancient building, before staring directly at me and emitting yet another bone-shaking screech.  


“ _Holy shit…_ ”  


That was about right.  


I hurriedly unfurled my arms and scrambled for my bow, drawing it just as the large flying machine took to the air, once again, the blast of arctic wind generated by its wings ripping through me as if I were made of parchment. Once I had nocked an arrow, I tried to take aim, but I noticed how badly the tip of the arrowhead wavered in my hands and I cursed loudly, lowering the bow just in time to sprint away from the incoming blast of energy from the Stormbird’s lightning gun affixed to its chest. The ground shook behind me as I felt the vague hints of electricity crackling at my heels, but the attack seemed to largely have missed me.  


There had to be some way to get the advantage, at least even for a moment.  


Immediately, my eyes fixed on the ruins of the research building ahead of me and I raced toward it, tracking the position of the Stormbird behind me by sound, but not daring to actually look back. Just as I heard it begin to maneuver directly overhead, I dropped into a slide, leaning my head back just in time to slip through one of the old windows of the building. Almost immediately, I fell a foot or two and landed with a grunt on the hard surface of whatever remained of the foundation. I quickly scrambled to my feet, rubbing at my back with a grimace, and whirled in place as I tried to get a sight of the machine overhead.  


It wasn’t hard to miss, however, as there were enough holes in the structure to clearly see the glowing blue electricity that gave away the Stormbird’s position. I held my bow at the ready as I tried to position myself near one of the windows or holes in the wall nearest me. As soon as I was in the opening, the machine and I seemed to lock eyes, but I was faster to react. I drew my bow, tightening my grip with my left hand on the actual bow as tightly as I dared. A moment later, the hardpoint arrow flew free, cutting through the small flurries of snow kicked up by the machine’s wings. A shower of sparks and a pained shriek from the machine were enough to tell me I had hit my target, but when it looked back down at me, one of the glowing red lights of its eyes was dark, and a smirk tugged at my lips.  


“Still got it…”  


A moment later, however, the large bird-like machine swooped toward me, and I ducked below the lip of the window. The wall of the structure shook as I heard a loud crash from above, prompting me to look up. My gaze was matched by the glowing blue of the Stormbird’s lightning gun, the energy within it growing brighter by the moment. Apparently, it had landed on the wall of the structure over me, and now I was an incredibly easy target.  


Multiple curses flew from my lips as I suddenly leapt to my feet, scrambling over the edge of the window and into the snow, once again, only to feel my muscles lock up a moment later. Incredible pain exploded throughout me as I heard the boom of the lightning gun’s attack hit the ground after the actual electricity began to course through me. A scream forced its way out of me just before the stiffness released my limbs and I collapsed into a heap on the ground.  


“ _Get up, get up, get up!_ ”  


I was working on it.  


I painfully got to my hands and knees, weakly tugging an arrow free of my quiver and holding it against the string of the bow. As I raised the weapon toward the machine, its gun began to glow, once again. My motions felt delayed, and I knew there was no way I would be able to actually do enough damage to stop it before the full blast of the lightning attack slammed into me.  


So it wasn’t a street in Sunfall, after all…  


“ _Open your Focus!_ ”  


What?  


“ _Do it, now!_ ”  


I tilted my head to the side and pressed the device against my shoulder, the interface coming to life with a familiar, synthetic whir. A moment later, my hands had dropped the bow and arrow on the ground before me, instead flying over the interface. A box appeared over the Stormbird, and I felt like I could only watch as several other boxes opened under my fingertips, bringing up line after line of symbols I couldn’t hope to track. A moment later, I had grabbed my spear from behind me, and the Focus scanned the override device at its end. Before I could question how any of this was supposed to help stop the Stormbird, my vision turned back to the larger machine as several boxes turned green and I tapped a smaller one that had opened before me.  


“Stop!”  


The word escaped my lips seemingly of its own accord, but a moment later, the lightning gun on the Stormbird began to power down, the glowing light in its center fading. Incredulity took over me as I watched the machine settle in place, staring down at me curiously, but seemingly with no intention of murdering me, anymore.  


“What…?” I panted, staring at the boxes of symbols, still at a total loss as to how any of the past few seconds had even happened.  


“ _Overrode it… like normal, but… wireless._ ”  


“I… it… what?”  


“ _It won’t hurt you… for now at least._ ”  


I slowly closed the Focus interface, keeping an eye on the huge machine as I retrieved my bow and unused arrow, stowing them away slowly. As I got to my feet, the Stormbird continued to watch me, but almost like an inquisitive child, rather than a hulking mass of metal that could crush me at any moment. I tentatively took a few steps forward, but it remained where it was, its head following my motions.  


“You… won’t hurt me?”  


Its head tilted to one side and it made a strange, synthetic chirping sound, but it almost felt like an actual answer to my question.  


“Nice bird… nice—big, scary bird…”  


I carefully maneuvered around it, walking backward for a little while, even, just to make sure it wouldn’t suddenly change its mind and rip me in half when I wasn’t looking. To my utter amazement, it remained where it was, even turning away its attention away from me. As I began to turn toward the top of the slope I had begun to ascend, the sound of it taking flight came from behind me and I whirled around, hand already wrapped around the wood of my bow in preparation, but the machine simply took to the air and flew off in the opposite direction, seemingly haven grown bored with me.  


“I… what?!”  


My voice echoed across the open ground, and I almost swore I could hear laughter echo back to me, but I shook my head and it was gone.  


“ _Don’t question it, just get into GAIA Prime._ ”  


How could I not?  


“ _Then do it later, when the world isn’t at stake._ ”  


Right, all that…  


I released my bow and turned to continue my trip up the slope toward where I knew the former facility entrance had been. As I did, the blowing snow around me began to change color, turning from white to brown, and I blinked several times, trying to see if it would change back, but with each one it only grew browner. Several moments later, I gave one last blink and the sounds of the howling wind and the cold of the snow seemed to fall away, replaced with a dull rushing sound, like a distant river, while the blowing snow had firmly turned a brown color, but I couldn’t feel it pelting my skin, anymore.  


I glanced down at myself to find not my bare arms, as they had been the entire climb, but what looked like some kind of machine. My breathing began to quicken as I heard the sound of it echoing in my ears, but the image of the blowing sand and the HEV suit didn’t disappear. I began to walk forward, once again, almost as if in a trance. Within only seconds, something began to appear out of the brown haze, and I quickly realized what it was: a door. It was massive, standing well over my head, and made of an incredibly heavy metal. Most importantly: it was flush with the outside of the structure it marked the entrance to.  


“GAIA Prime…”  


“ _Snap out of it. It’s not real._ ”  


But… it was right here…  


“ _You’re going to walk into the crater. Snap out of it!_ ”  


A heavy, metallic clunk sounded from up ahead and I saw the door sink into the wall slightly, before beginning to slide to one side, revealing a light from behind it. Against the backdrop of the light, I could just make out a figure, an arm reaching through the opening toward me.  


“ _Stop! Stop right now!_ ”  


My hand began to reach toward it, only for the next blink to clear the bright light and the metal door, instead leaving a dark, gaping void. I froze, eyes widening for a moment before I quickly staggered backward, my heel catching on something and sending me toppling to the ground. As I landed on my rear, I immediately noticed how cold the ground was and my hands curled around the snow on either side of me. The temperature burned slightly against my bare skin, but I closed my fingers even more tightly, breathing heavily in through my nose before letting it out through my mouth.  


That was far too close.  


Several more deep breaths later, and I finally dragged myself to my feet, once again. My knees shook slightly as I carefully shuffled close to the makeshift fence that had been erected along the edge of the sheer drop into the crater that had been GAIA Prime, once upon a time. Almost immediately, my head began to spin, and I backed away, pressing my hands against my temples, the cold from the snow combining with the pressure to bring me back to the present, alert and aware.  


“Not the time to fall into a bottomless hole…”  


With a heavy sigh, I began to make my way along the path that led up to the door I had used to enter, once before. My shoulders slumped at the realization that I had still another climb ahead of me, but I quickly squared my jaw and approached the first handhold. Only a minute or two later, I was standing at the top of the short cliff face, staring into the remnants of some room within GAIA Prime. The same, odd machinery components, seemingly ripped from machines somewhere else in the world, littered the space, but something else immediately drew my attention. A figure stood before the doorway at the far end of the room, still and silent, and I had to blink several times to convince myself that they weren’t a hallucination.  


“Surprise.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Who could it be? Find out next week!
> 
> Also, some serious shit is going to hit the fan, so come ready.


	26. The Guilt & The Grief

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Monday, e'rrybody.
> 
> So, this week's chapter isn't quite as long as the last few, but it's by no means lacking in content... I think, at least.
> 
> Also, I hope you're not super squeamish.
> 
> Do with that what you will.
> 
> Bonus points if you know the reference of the chapter title.
> 
> On with the show, as they say.

Sylens stepped forward, a smirk on his face. I let out a heavy sigh that turned into something like a growl by the end of it.  


“What do you want, Sylens?”  


“To help.”  


That caught me by surprise.  


“You? Help?”  


“I have saved your life at least twice,” he said, “it should not be out of the ordinary.”  


“No, but I would have expected you to just use your Focus, like normal.”  


“Well, in this instance, that would not allow me to provide the help I intend.”  


My eyebrows raised slightly, but I remained where I was, hands at the ready to grab my spear at a moment’s notice.  


“I offer you a means to wield the Master Override.”  


He gestured to his right and my eyes followed his gaze to a workbench against the far wall. A long weapon with a wickedly curved blade at one end lay on its surface, the metal infused with some kind of glowing, blue material.  


“A spear?”  


“My lance,” he clarified. “You may use it as a means of injection.”  


My lips drew into a thin line as I nodded curtly, turning back to him.  


“Is that it, then? Why wait around for me? Or did I just catch you before you could leave?”  


“No, I wanted to speak to you while I was here,” he replied, shaking his head.  


“About what?”  


“To ‘clear the air,’ as an old saying goes.”  


“ _I swear, I’ve never heard slang sound so pretentious…_ ”  


“About what?”  


“I want to help you in regards to HADES and the Eclipse, and hopefully dispel some of your reservations about my intentions.”  


“I mean, I don’t think anything you could actually say would do that, but let’s hear it.”  


He appeared to chew the inside of one of his cheeks for a moment before clearing his throat and continuing.  


“I admitted, as you know, to helping HADES… to helping the Eclipse. I helped because it promised knowledge… and it delivered. Such knowledge, you have—”  


“Yes, I know you will do anything for your sacred knowledge,” I interrupted, rolling my eyes. “What’s your point?”  


Sylens glared at me for several moments before continuing.  


“My point is that during this time, I also learned what it sought—what motivated it. HADES is not after Meridian, itself, but it is after the Spire. That is why it is interested in assisting the Eclipse.”  


“The Spire?” I repeated, tilting my head to the side slightly. “Why?”  


“It holds a particular importance. Do you know why?”  


“ _Really? This is a pop quiz now?_ ”  


I chewed the inside of my cheek slowly as I stared back at Sylens, narrowing my eyes slightly.  


“It was made by GAIA…” I answered.  


“Which part?”  


“ _MINERVA…_ ”  


“MINERVA,” I repeated.  


“And what was its purpose?”  


“It… was a code-breaking subfunction,” I said softly. “It was designed to shut down the Faro bots, deactivate their bio matter conversion systems…”  


“And so…?”  


“ _Oh no…_ ”  


“HADES wants to send a new transmission—wake the machines.”  


“That is my conclusion, as well,” Sylens nodded.  


“All the deathbots the Eclipse resurrected… they’re just a means to an end—an army to capture the Spire.”  


A few muscles seemed to twitch in Sylens’ face at my words, but he quickly cleared his throat and tried to cover his reaction.  


“Yes, so HADES can exterminate life all over again… unless you stop it.”  


“ _Why is it always one person who has to save the goddamn world?_ ”  


Sylens raised one eyebrow and I froze in place, quickly realizing that I had actually spoken aloud.  


“I can understand your distress—Doctor Sobeck.”  


I swallowed thickly, meeting his gaze with a glare.  


“Sorry, just—”  


“You may have deceived me before,” he interrupted, taking a step forward, “but I will not let you so casually brush it off this time. I have spent… many days… weeks, even… waiting for the chance to probe the mind of one of the Ancient World’s greatest minds.”  


My teeth ground audibly as I stared back at him, my hands clenching around the fabric of my skirt for a moment before releasing it as I flattened my palms forcefully against the sides of my legs.  


“And what makes you think I’d even let you indulge in that?” I challenged, taking several aggressive steps forward. “You going to kill your _one hope_ of saving the world?”  


Now it was Sylens’ turn to grind his teeth in frustration, a smirk appearing on my lips.  


“So, HADES is after the Spire, so it can resurrect the Faro bots. I need to get the Master Override to it and shut it down before everything dies. Anything else you need to tell me about the cult you helped start?”  


When he remained silent, I let out a short laugh and stepped around him.  


“Talk to you later, Sylens.”  


“Elisabet—”  


“You—” I began, whirling around to face him as the scanner above the door began to pass over me, “can call me Doctor Sobeck, asshole.”  


Just then, the door slid open and I spun on my heel, marching through the opening. Before Sylens could offer any sort of response, the metal barricade slid closed, once again, and I was left in the semi-dark silence of the ruined hallway, beyond. I paused for a moment, taking a deep breath in through my nose before letting it out slowly through my mouth, a grin appearing on my features.  


That felt good.  


“ _Two peas in a goddamn pod._ ”  


I… what?  


Nevermind.  


The journey through the ruined hallways of the former GAIA Prime facility took much less time than my first visit, and I soon found myself coming to the death-defying gap connected by two flimsy pieces of metal rods that had once been part of the support structure. The groaning and creaking of the metal under my weight immediately got my heart racing to an even faster tempo, but I tried to ignore it as I continued onward, paying special attention to exactly where I was putting my feet.  


As I reached the midpoint, where the beam was severed, I braced myself for the short leap to the other side, only for the next blink to bring a fully finished hallway before me.  


“Shit!”  


The curse echoed about me for a moment as if I was standing in the normal hallway, only for the next blink to change the sound to the echoes of the cavernous crater of the ruined facility. I also realized just a moment too late that my foot had missed the section of the steel beam ahead of me and had slid off into the open air beside it.  


A shriek of surprise escaped me as I desperately reached out for the beam ahead of me. My arms wrapped over the top of it a moment later and sharp pain exploded in my shoulders as all of my weight landed on them. The metal beam bent even further at the sudden force of my weight slamming into it, and I swore I heard even more creaks and groans in the background.  


“No, no, no, no, no…”  


I quickly began to pull myself along the length of metal, kicking my feet helplessly beneath me. When it started to tilt too severely to hold on from the side, I tried to swing at least one leg up and over the beam. The motion was enough to cause its tilting angle to increase even further, and I desperately wrapped my arms and legs around the freezing, slick surface. I began to shimmy my way up the remaining portion of the beam, toward the hanging tube that had once been a hallway through the inside of the mountain. Just as I reached the end of the beam, I noticed that the point where it was bending at the end of the ruined hallway segment was actually splitting open, and the only thing holding me suspended hundreds of yards in the air was a few inches of thin sheet metal.  


A long, drawn-out curse escaped me as I pushed forward with all of my strength, reaching toward the lip that had once been part of the hallway’s floor. Just as my fingers brushed it, however, the last bit of the metal gave way and I felt my stomach sink in my abdomen. A moment later, however, my other hand had released the steel beam I had previously clung to for dear life and reached toward the end of the broken hallway. The next thing I knew, I was hanging from the edge of the former floor, the sound of the shrieking, groaning metal distantly echoing about the crater.  


I spared a quick glance over my shoulder, but I couldn’t see the former support falling into the dark abyss, so I refocused on the hallway above me. The pain in my shoulders as I began to pull myself up with only my arms was incredible, but the thought of what would happen if I just decided to relax kept me from actually letting go. A moment later, I was lying on my back on the cold floor of the ruined hallway, staring up at the holes in the ceiling that let in faint streams of moonlight from the opening even farther overhead that had been created when some part of the facility had punched through it in the nuclear blast of GAIA’s core going supernova.  


“I don’t even know what half of that means…” I laughed, shaking my head as I pressed the heels of my hands into my eyes for several moments before painfully rolling onto my side and beginning to drag myself to my hands and knees.  


Funny, though. All of those words felt natural.  


As I shakily got to my feet, I heard the sounds of metal groaning and echoing around me and my heart rate began to pound in my ears, once again. I didn’t take the time to make sure all of my limbs were functioning properly, but instead quickly began to charge ahead, moving at a pace somewhat like a light jog down the former hallway, until I felt the strength return to my legs and I took off at a sprint.  


A few seconds later, I slowed to a stop as I reached the end of the tunnel. I had found myself in a larger, open room that looked vaguely familiar as I glanced around it. Like most of the facility, it was almost impossible to tell what the area had once been, but I couldn’t shake the nagging feeling in the back of my mind.  


“Of course, I’ve been here before,” I muttered, gingerly rubbing at my left side for a moment before letting my arm loosely beside me as I glanced back at the former hallway I had just left behind.  


It still remained suspended in the air over the gaping chasm, but something told me it wasn’t going to be a viable option to use, once again. With a heavy sigh, I turned back to face the open space behind me and continued on toward the large hole in the wall that revealed whatever room lay beyond.  


The trek through the ruins of the facility quickly turned into something more like a cave exploration as I was forced to crawl through narrow, rocky passageways and climb up short walls until I eventually crawled through one final opening in a thick, metal wall and found myself in a much larger, mostly undamaged room.  


Of course, my eyes immediately focused on the image presented by my Focus in the center of the space. A large, floating head stared back at me, its gaze determinedly boring into me as I moved forward slowly, unable to break the eye contact with the holographic image. It felt oddly like… staring into a mirror. A reflection.  


I had seen this very sight before, not so long ago.  


“ _There has to be another way!_ ”  


The voice echoed in my ears as I moved down the short set of stairs to the lowered portion of the room.  


“ _We can bring you back inside and—_ ”  


“No, it’s done.”  


My voice came out like a whisper, as if forced from deep within me, but with just enough strength to escape.  


“I want to go home.”  


I slowly began to shake my head, closing my eyes, but my feet continued to carry me forward.  


“No, I-I… you don’t want to… they were right…”  


My eyes slid open once again, the image of the floating head in the middle of the table replaced with a full-body figure, although I could have sworn for a moment that she was dressed in an outfit of fur, leather, and metal.  


“There was no other way…”  


Suddenly, my fist slammed down on the edge of the table as I glared up at the image, who slowly crouched down until she was almost eye level with me.  


“There’s always another way,” I hissed, my voice breathy but no less intense.  


The purple-hued image slowly began to shake her head and I straightened up, causing her to recoil slightly in surprise.  


“You knew it! All of you knew it!”  


The image continued to shake her head.  


“What good would it have done?”  


“We wouldn’t be standing here!”  


“ _You_ wouldn’t be standing here!”  


I froze where I was, my voice echoing about the large room as my chest heaved with each gasping breath. The feeling of something warm appeared on my shoulder, but when I whirled to face it, I found nothing. More voices began to echo in my ears and I pressed my hands over them, closing my eyes tightly.  


“Stop it, stop it, stop it…”  


Finally, when the crescendo had reached its peak, I let out a throat-shredding scream, shaking my head as I did.  


“I tried!”  


My eyes shot open to find the images of eight figures standing on the other side of the large table. They all remained completely silent as I slowly lowered my hands from my ears, turning to face them, fully.  


“I’m trying…”  


The words came out almost like a whimper as I quickly bit at my lower lip to stop it from quivering. With the next blink, however, the figures were gone, and I was left staring at the holographic, disembodied head of Elisabet Sobeck from a thousand years ago floating over the table. I avoided its gaze as I stalked around the table and quickly ascended the stairs on the other side.  


I didn’t stop to look in any of the side rooms, once again, before continuing on up the old elevator shaft toward the former upper levels of the facility. As I stepped into the narrow, vertical space, I sighed at the sight of the emergency ladder bars leading up to the open doorway overhead.  


“This was so much easier the first time… or before…”  


A shiver ran down my spine before I forced myself onward, quickly climbing the faded, yellow rungs until I managed to drag myself over the threshold of the doorway to the next floor above. With a sigh, I got to my feet and moved cautiously to the edge of the sheer drop off that lay before me, peering over the edge before quickly shuffling back, once again.  


“Need to stop doing that…”  


My attention turned from the gaping void beneath me to the large, metal structure that still remained embedded in the rock of the mountain, despite facing an ancient blast that had destroyed everything around it.  


“It has to be there…” I sighed, “…unfortunately.”  


With a deep breath, I set about along the cliff face, making my way along the winding path to the entrance to the Control Room. By the time I had climbed onto the last set of metal stairs leading into the room, I was panting and wiping the sweat from my brow, but I barely allowed myself a moment of repose before pressing on toward the short hallway that led into the main room contained within the reinforced metal walls. As I came within the last few feet of the door, however, I came to a halt, my hands clenching into fists at my sides.  


Could I really go back in there?  


I had to.  


I really didn’t want to.  


Didn’t matter.  


With a deep breath, I raised my hand over the locking mechanism, twisting it until the light turned green. As the doors slid open with a heavy clunk, I froze, eyes widening. The room beyond was not the cold, sterile room full of ancient, mummified corpses it should have been, but a brightly-lit room devoid of any signs of life, living or dead, save one figure at the far side of the conference table. They rose from their seat, raising their hand in a slight wave before beckoning me onward.  


“Come in, come in, Lis.”  


The image of Ted grinned as I glanced behind me, only to find that the gaping crater that I had just traversed was now replaced with a similarly brightly-lit hallway, almost exactly as I remembered it when—  


Wait, remembered?  


“Well don’t just stand there. You’re letting in a draft.”  


I turned back to the image of Ted, my jaw clenching as I slowly stepped forward. After I had taken only a step or two, the doors slammed closed behind me and I jumped in surprise, whirling to face them, only to find a reflection in them that I hadn’t expected. The hair was too long. The clothes were wrong.  


“Come on, I won’t bite.”  


I slowly turned back to the image of Ted, my eyes narrowing as I clenched my hands into my fists at my sides.  


“Okay, not hard…”  


“Fuck. You.”  


“That’s a lot of bark, Lis. You got the jaw strength behind it?”  


Before I was fully aware of it, a bow and arrow were in my hands, the string drawn and the feathered end held between my fingers. The image of Ted looked somewhat impressed for a moment before an arrow sprouted from his throat. He staggered from the blow, hands clasping at the wooden shaft as blood began to run from the wound. A moment later, he had managed to grasp it with both hands, and subsequently yank it free. Somehow, the flow of blood seemed to slow, rather than spurt out in a geyser of vermilion, and he laughed, rubbing at his neck, where it now showed no traces of an injury.  


“Okay, you’ve got bite, too.”  


With that, he tossed the arrow aside, clearing his throat before wiping at the remaining blood on his neck and shaking his hand to his side.  


“Now that you’ve gotten that out of your system,” he continued, clearing his throat. “Let’s talk.”  


“We don’t have anything to talk about.”  


“Oh, now that’s a load of shit, Lis,” he laughed, shaking his head as he casually took a seat in his chair, once again. “It’s been a long time. We should catch up.”  


“You’re not real, and there’s nothing I need to say to some part of my subconscious—”  


“How can you be so sure?”  


I froze for a moment, finger half-raised accusatorily, my mouth hanging open as the image of Ted stared back at me, his expression only giving away slight hints of amusement.  


“You know, they say that when a—terrible—thing happens in a place… it can leave behind a lot of bad… residual energy,” he continued. “That’s what some think creates ghosts.”  


“I saw those old, corny shows, too, so what?”  


“Well… you know where we are.”  


“You were never here, though, so why would you be a ghost _here_ , then?”  


“Maybe not physically, but—”  


“Your dirty work, sure,” I spat, leaning forward on the edge of the table, my fingers rubbing over the cold metal of the surface with enough pressure that the tips turned a bright white. “Did guilt project you all the way here?”  


“Not mine.”  


I froze in place, my brow creased in confusion as he simple stared back at me, most of the traces of amusement gone from his expression.  


“Why do you think you keep coming back here?”  


“Because I need things.”  


“Bullshit!”  


Ted threw his hands into the air, rolling his eyes as he slouched somewhat in his chair.  


“Something keeps drawing you to this place, like a vulture to a carcass. You know what it is, though. You left eight people in a big, metal coffin to die.”  


“ _You_ —” I screamed, straightening up and pointing toward him emphatically, “ _murdered_ eight people in this room! _You decided_ to end the lives of some of the greatest—people—the world had ever known, and ruin the future they had worked so hard to achieve, because _you_ felt _guilty_ for your own selfish actions!”  


“Some things in life take sacrifices, Lis!” he shot back, beginning to rise from his seat. “You of all people should know, seeing as you throw thousands— _millions_ —of lives into a fucking meat grinder just so you could have your precious time to build your perfect world in your own image because _you_ thought you were the second coming of God!”  


A moment later, a wooden staff was in my hands and I reeled my arm back, holding it like a javelin behind me. As I released the spear, I barely watched it sail through the air and impale the image of Ted in the chest, because I was already running around one side of the circular table. He fell back into his seat at the impact, his hands quickly taking hold of the weapon and attempting to pull it loose. Before he could, however, I reached him and grabbed the other end of the handle, shoving it farther in. A long groan escaped the image as I could have sworn I heard the sickening cracking and crunching of bones breaking and being pushed aside by the force of the weapon.  


“If I’m God,” I snarled, leaning closer toward him as I continued to put more of my weight behind the spear, “then I guess that makes you the Devil, and it’s about fucking time I cast you out.”  


“You—you already—know,” he wheezed, his hands feebly pushing against the weapon slowly sinking farther into his chest, “this doesn’t—accomplish—anything.”  


“No, but it makes me feel better.”  


The image somehow managed to laugh, even though it came out more like a wheeze.  


“I didn’t—mean—stabbing—me…”  


My grip faltered on the spear for a moment as confusion rolled over me, and in the next blink of an eye, the image of Ted was gone, replaced with an empty chair. The room was once again in a semi-darkness, although some kind of light source still shown from behind me enough to cast a faint, purple hue on everything. I glanced down at my hands, only to find them now empty, although I did note something else about them that had changed: sleeves.  


“E-Elisabet… what… what are you…?”  


The voice made me freeze, my heart stopping for a beat as my blood froze in my veins. I could feel my legs begin to tremble as I turned in place, slowly revealing the rest of the room. A group of people were just entering through the far door, although most of them had only gone a few feet before coming to an abrupt halt. The figure at the front of the group locked eyes with me for several long moments before his went even wider.  


“You’re… here?”  


“How did you get in?” another, incredibly familiar voice chimed in, pushing past the first figure and approaching the far side of the table with wide eyes.  


“That’s a mean trick to pull, Lizzy.”  


“ _No, this was all wrong…_ ”  


But… they were right there… this wasn’t… a memory…  


“It isn’t a recording, is it?”  


The figure on the far side of the table began to move around it, although my feet felt rooted in place. A few moments later, and she had slowed to a stop a few feet before me.  


“ _She can’t be real._ ”  


She had to be. I had to find out, at least.  


“Elisabet…?”  


The figure slowly reached toward me until her fingers brushed over the fabric of my jacket at my wrist. She recoiled slightly in surprise, sucking in a breath, before I reached forward, myself, slowly taking her hand in my trembling fingers.  


“Samina…”  


The woman let out a sound somewhere between a gasp of surprise and a sob as her hand quickly closed around mine in a firm grip.  


“It really her?”  


Samina slowly began to nod as I felt my own eyes begin to grow watery.  


“ _It… she… it seems so real…_ ”  


I told you…  


“ _But no, it couldn’t be. She’s dead._ ”  


How could you say that right now?  


“ _It’s the truth!_ ”  


I squeezed my eyes closed, shaking my head slowly as I focused intently on the feeling of the warm hand in mine. It felt so real… it had to be real… I wanted it to be real…  


With one last, deep breath, I opened my eyes, only to find myself squeezing my hand in the empty air, the woman from moments ago vanished into thin air, as if she had never been there, at all.  


“ _Because she wasn’t._ ”  


But—  


“ _Not like that, in a thousand years, at least…_ ”  


A hard lump appeared in my throat as I slowly turned my gaze from the empty air before me to the table in the center of the room. As I took in the images of the ancient, near-mummified corpses in the last, frozen throes of death, the smell of the room came rushing back and I gagged, staggering forward and bracing my hands on the edge of the table.  


God, I had forgotten that smell…  


“ _Not one I’d want to remember, anyway._ ”  


No one should.  


After several deep breaths in and out through my mouth, I lifted my head, looking around the darkened room. As I did, something made my hair stand on end and I found myself subconsciously reaching for my spear behind my back. As my hand came to rest on the wooden staff of the weapon, I realized what had put me so on edge and froze in place.  


All of the heads of the Alphas’ corpses were now turned to look at me.  


The hollow pits that had once been eyes met my gaze as I glanced around to each of them, in turn. I slowly took my hand away from my weapon and straightened up, pushing off of the table. None of them made any further, obvious motions, so I spared a moment to glance around the space for the Master Override, or whatever contained it. Almost immediately, I caught sight of a small cylinder laying on the table between two of the bodies at the far end, and I quickly strode toward it.  


As I went to grab the metal device, something else grabbed my wrist and I let out a scream in surprise. I attempted to yank my hand back, but the grip held strong, preventing me from moving my arm more than a few inches. When my brain finally registered what was holding onto me, my heart leapt into my throat and my eyes widened. It wasn’t a skeletal hand, like what had leapt into my mind at first, but one still very much covered in flesh and skin. My eyes traced up the arm toward its owner until I froze, once again.  


Part of me almost wished it had been some corpse-like specter, instead.  


The image of Samina, chest heaving and mouth gaping as she gasped for air, caught in the last throes of her life, stared back at me, her eyes wide and water flowing from her eyes.  


“Don’t… make… this… for… nothing…”  


She let out one last, horrifying gasp for breath before her eyes rolled back in her head and she went limp, sliding lower in her chair as her hand finally released mine.  


I continued to stare down at the corpse of one of the last people I had ever known on the face of the planet for several more moments, my eyes wide and mouth agape, as if my entire body was frozen in place like the others around me. Finally, when I seemed to regain control of myself, I blinked at the burning sensation building in my eyes, only to reveal the ages-old corpse propped in its chair before me, as it had been for a thousand years.  


Undisturbed, and long dead.  


“ _But…_ ”  


As it was. As it should have been.  


“ _What do you mean?_ ”  


I finally cleared my throat against the rough, sore feeling in it, taking a deep breath in before lifting the cold, metal cylinder in my hand, holding it before me.  


“Because that’s the way history actually happened.”  


My fingers curled tightly around the device for a moment before slowly relaxing their deathgrip as I took another deep breath.  


“And we can’t change it… no matter how much we want to.”


	27. The Looming Shadow

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's Monday again.
> 
> If you've played the game, you might have a bit of an idea what that chapter title means.
> 
> Big things are about to happen, everybody.
> 
> Also, we've blown way past the total word count of Duality by now. Fun fact.

With that, I slipped the device into one of the larger pouches on my belt and turned away from the group of dead bodies, striding quickly toward the door out of the control room. As I stepped outside, I was confronted with the short hallway coated in snow that led to the drop off into the massive crater only several yards ahead. As I approached the railing that somehow still stood along the broken stairs suspended over the gaping chasm, I came to a stop, gingerly gripping the metal and putting a small amount of weight on it. When the metal didn’t immediately give way, I relaxed my posture slightly, breathing a heavy sigh as I stared out into the moonlit chasm.  


The entire scene looked so much eerier at night, like staring at an actual burial ground. It was almost impossible to imagine that a vast series of metal tunnels and rooms once filled the space, surrounded by seemingly impenetrable rock, and yet now…  


“The world’s going to feel a whole lot emptier if I just stand here,” I sighed, giving the railing one last squeeze before glancing over my shoulder toward the door to the control room.  


The lock still shone from the end of the dark hallway, its faint red light almost like the eye of a machine, staring back at me seconds before it charged in for the kill. Or the red glow of the orb that represented HADES as it hovered over the platform at the top of the Tallneck.  


I guess I knew what the red meant, now.  


Red like blood.  


Red for death.  


Shaking my head, I turned from the hallway and continued toward the trail back down toward the door where I had first entered. Despite myself, I couldn’t help but let out a whooping cry of excitement as I slid down the rope affixed into the rock wall just past the end of the metal steps. When my feet touched ground and I jogged to a stop a few steps ahead of where I landed, I found laughter forcing its way out of me.  


“That will never get old…”  


“ _Maybe when you’re—_ ”  


Never.  


With a smirk, I headed back through the rocky, ruined hallways until I came to the locked door that led into Sylens’ old workshop and I came to a stop. There was a chance he had waited, seeing as he had been so adamant to speak to “Elisabet” earlier, but patience had never really been his defining characteristic. A thought occurred to me suddenly and I tapped my Focus, bringing the interface to life. Immediately, some large power cables embedded into the rock walls around the door were highlighted in bright purple, as well as a few of the items in the next room, but there were no signs of any human signatures.  


“Figured.”  


With a quick tap to the Focus, once again, I stepped forward and opened the door. The room was silent, other than the sound of the wind whistling quietly through the open doorway at the far end. Still, I remained still and silent for several long moments, waiting to see if any figures materialized from some well-concealed hiding spot, but the room remained as silent and still as the rest of the facility.  


Convinced that I was alone, my gaze fell on the workbench to my right, and more importantly: Sylens’ lance that still lay atop it. I stepped over to it and slowly lifted it before me, testing its weight in my hands. It was surprisingly light, even more so than my own spear. Whatever metal he had used to craft the blade seemed incredibly strong, while still allowing the center of balance to remain almost as close to the center of the staff as I had ever seen.  


“ _You have to hand it to him: he seems to be a brilliant craftsman._ ”  


Unfortunately.  


As I placed the lance back on the workbench, I pulled the Master Override from my pouch and laid it alongside the tail end, away from the blade.  


“Okay, just like before, basically…”  


Twenty or so minutes of tinkering, tying, testing, and retying spools of wire around the somewhat clunky metal cylinder and the wooden staff of the lance later, I let out a sigh and held the weapon in one hand before me. The amazing balance from before was somewhat lost due to the counterweight of the Override cylinder, but I felt I had managed to maintain as good of a feel as I could.  


“Doesn’t have to be perfect,” I muttered, “just good enough to… ‘inject’ HADES with it… whatever that means.”  


Now that the weapon was complete, I realized I had another problem. Where was I going to store this thing?  


With a frown, I tried my best to fit both it and my spear into the same holders, somehow, but to no avail. Finally, after a few minutes of struggling and failing with something that just wasn’t going to happen, the answer came to me when my hand came to rest on the crook of my bow, where the string met the curved, wooden portion. I quickly pulled the bow free from over my shoulders and held the lance in place behind me before sliding it back in place. The tension from the bowstring against my torso held the actual bow tightly enough behind me that the lance seemed secure enough; it didn’t immediately slide down and clatter on the floor, at least.  


I took a few tentative steps, but other than its position shifting slightly against the shape of my back and the armor of my tunic, it remained in place. Several laps sprinting back and forth across the small workshop didn’t manage to shake it loose, either, so I came to a stop with a heavy sigh, grinning.  


“Look who knows her way around putting stuff together, too.”  


“ _So proud._ ”  


“Oh shut up,” I sighed, rolling my eyes as I turned to head back outside.  


The climb down to the rocky path and snowy field outside what had once been the front door of the facility took much longer than I wanted to admit, but when I reached the bottom, I didn’t take a break, instead whirling on the spot and heading straight out into the snow, once again.  


Even through all of the climbing, sneaking, and running that constituted the trip back down the Bitter Climb, the lance never once came loose, nor got in the way. As I finally hopped to the ground at the destitute campsite where I had collapsed on the way in, I carefully checked its position against my back, but found that it was as secure as ever. A short laugh escaped me before I turned in place to find a bright blue light staring me in the face. I recoiled in surprise for a moment before realizing what it was as the Strider let out some kind of whirring sound that almost seemed like a greeting.  


“You waited for me?” I said softly, reaching one hand slowly toward its “nose.”  


To my surprise, the machine bowed its head, allowing me to place my palm flat on the metal section just above its bright, blue eye. I remained still in shock for a moment or two before stiffly patting it a few times. A moment later, I pulled my hand back and the Strider lifted its head, once again.  


“Well, guess that makes the trip back easier, huh?”

   


  


  


By the time the grass and trees of the mountains gave way to the sands of the desert, once again, the sun was burning high overhead, creating rivulets of sweat that ran down the sides of my face, my neck, and my back beneath my tunic. I had to continuously wipe at my brow with my shoulder to try to stop the droplets before they ran into my eyes, but I was only marginally successful. Eventually, the sand whipped up by the winds blowing across the open ground seemed to stick to my skin, partially obscuring the droplets’ path.  


I’d take the small victory.  


The one thing that struck me as particularly odd as I drew closer to Meridian was the notable lack of any other moving object around me. There were far fewer machines, as well as people, along the rivers and trails that wound their way across the red sands. Suddenly, as I rounded the corner of a large rock formation, I spotted a cart alongside the trail ahead and slowed the Strider to a mild canter. By the time we reached the wooden vehicle, I slowed the Strider to a stop and scanned the area around us for any signs of its owner, but we seemed to be alone. I activated the Focus and used its enhanced scanning ability, but this also seemed to yield nothing until my gaze landed on the cart, itself.  


The interface highlighted an object seemingly in or on the cart, but when I closed the interface, there appeared to be nothing there. I carefully guided the Strider alongside the front of the wooden vehicle and quickly brought it to a stop when I caught sight of what my Focus had inevitably scanned a moment ago.  


Three bodies lay on the ground, neatly placed beside each other in a very unnatural layout.  


There was no way they had fallen like this.  


My gaze could only linger on the image of the two adults and child laying in a dried patch of red sand for a few moments before I was forced to look away. I couldn’t look at the young boy missing an eye or the dark-haired man with his throat slit or the light-haired man with the bloody hole in the center of his chest without feeling an overwhelming sense of guilt.  


“ _There was definitely no way you could have stopped this._ ”  


“This had to be the Eclipse,” I muttered. “Tell me how that’s not my fault.”  


“ _You don’t actually know that._ ”  


“Bandits wouldn’t dare come this close to Meridian… unless…”  


My grip tightened around the cables of the Strider as I leaned forward, digging my heels into the sides of the machine as I spurred it into a gallop, quickly leaving the cart and the murdered family behind. The landscape of the Sundom fell away around me at breakneck speed as I just barely managed to guide the Strider down the right, unmarked pathways, until finally we found ourselves charging along the edge of a sheer cliff face. My gaze broke from the path ahead for just a moment to spare a glance to the left, but as I did, I pulled back on the Strider, bringing it to a safer speed as I rose to a normal seated position.  


The city on the mesa still stood as it had when I left, with no obvious signs of fighting or plumes of smoke rising into the air above it. For all intents and purposes, it look as if Dervahl hadn’t even attacked it mere days ago.  


“But… then… those bodies…”  


“ _Doesn’t mean you were wrong about them, just… maybe a little overestimating._ ”  


“That means there’s still time, though,” I panted, quickly spurring the Strider onward, once again.  


As I came to the end of one of the long, elevated bridges that led into the city, I brought the Strider to a stop and hopped from its back in one fluid motion. My gaze swept the entrance to the walkway, but found no signs of the typical Carja guards on post. The hair on the back of my neck began to rise as I pressed onward, breaking into a jog along the winding, wooden pathways that connected the large, stone pillars with ornate clay roofs and decorative spires atop them.  


This path was usually so much busier, even this late in the day. The sun hadn’t even gone down, yet…  


As I finally drew closer to the end of the elevated pathway, however, I found the reason why it was so deserted. The gate that led into the city, itself, was drawn closed providing an imposing wooden and wrought iron barricade that towered over me. I slowed to a walk as I approached, scanning the wall above the gate for signs of life, only to catch it as a hint of motion off to my right. I came to a sudden stop, head whirling toward it only to suddenly crouch down behind the wall of the walkway a moment later. A loud clang sounded from above my head as I ducked it forward slightly, brushing a few flakes of stone from my hair. Suddenly, a voice called out, seemingly from atop the wall into Meridian.  


“Did the sun fry your brain?!”  


A smirk tugged at my lips as I tentatively braced my hands atop the wall of the walkway and peeked over the top of the stone barrier. Two Carja guards stood atop the main wall ahead of me, one of them delivering a deft slap to the back of the other’s head. I caught sight of the bow in the reprimanded one’s hands and the scene quickly began to make sense.  


“Does that look like one of those cultists?”  


“I just saw movement and no one’s tried to get in here all day, so…”  


“So stop for a second before you snipe the head off the one person the Sun King’s specifically been lookin’ for!”  


My eyebrows raised slightly as I tentatively rose to a standing position, holding my hands over my head.  


“I come in peace!”  


The guard who seemed to be the leader looked back toward me, before glancing at his compatriot and letting out a beleaguered sigh.  


“Open the gate for her, will you?”  


The other guard nodded and quickly disappeared from sight. The leader turned back to me, raising a hand in greeting.  


“One moment, Aloy of the Nora!”  


“ _Famous now, are we?_ ”  


As long as it meant I wasn’t getting shot at, yet, I’d take it.  


A moment or two later, a heavy grinding sound came from the gate ahead of me and I turned back to it as one of the doors slowly began to open. I stepped forward and waited until it was just wide enough for a person to fit through, when the horrible sound suddenly came to a stop. A moment later, a head appeared through the opening, eyes widening for a moment at the sight of me so close, before the Carja guard composed himself and cleared his throat.  


“C-come in,” he offered.  


I smiled slightly in agreement, nodding before the man slid back inside and I maneuvered around the door, myself. The opening was just wide enough for me to squeeze through with all of my weapons, and as soon as I was inside, the door began to close, once again. Several Carja guards in full armor stood before me, all of whom quickly straightened their postures and pounded the butts of their spears on the ground.  


“Aloy, welcome back to Meridian,” the man with the voice I recognized from atop the wall moments ago said, stepping forward. “Sun King Avad has requested your audience upon your arrival.”  


“Good, I need to talk to him, too.”  


“Right this way, ma’am.”  


The guard led me through the streets deeper into Meridian, and it quickly became apparent that I had perhaps arrived just in time. They were all packed with people, but not in the ways they usually were. There were no crowds milling about marketplaces or going in and out of shops, but groups huddled together against the buildings on either side, seemingly having laid claim to a small patch of ground for upwards of four or five people for each small square. Despite the sheer number of people we passed, however, the thing that struck me the most was how quiet it was. I could easily hear the guard’s and my own footsteps echoing about the narrow streets as we passed.  


“ _Maybe something did happen…_ ”  


Avad would have answers.  


There had to be a reason he wanted to speak with me so badly, after all.  


Finally, after several minutes of walking, the guard came to a stop before an entire line of men and women in heavy armor, each holding a rather large weapon at the ready, although the exact type varied from extremely heavy-looking hammers to lances with tips so sharp that they looked as if they could slice through the armor of a Ravager with ease.  


“I bring Aloy of the Nora, at Sun King Avad’s request,” the guard who had been leading me said to one of the figures in the center of the line.  


As they leaned around the Carja guard, I realized that it was a woman with nearly as much muscle as Erend and the tips of unruly dark hair poking out from underneath her helmet. Once she had scanned me up and down once, she gave a curt nod and stepped aside. The Carja guard stepped aside, as well, gesturing through the gap.  


“I believe you know the way from here?”  


I glanced ahead to realize that we were actually standing at the end of the bridge to the palace. The wall of guards had done a better job at obscuring it from view than I had first thought.  


“Y-yeah, I do,” I replied, nodding.  


With that, the Carja guard turned to begin walking back to his post, leaving me alone with the line of rather intimidating soldiers. The woman who had made a path gave me an impatient glance and I quickly strode forward. Just before I could pass, however, she placed a heavy hand on my shoulder and brought me to a halt with her firm grip. My body tensed as I prepared for some form of inevitable attack, but when I turned toward her, the woman’s impatient expression had given way to something much more unreadable.  


“We heard about the camp with Ersa,” she said, her voice quieter than I expected, “how not a single one of those bastards was left alive.”  


I swallowed the lump in my throat, but it did little to help, so I simply nodded. The woman continued to stare back at me for a few moments before returning a nod of her own.  


“Thank you.”  


My eyebrows raised slightly as I glanced over her armor, once again, only to realize why it looked so familiar. It was Oseram make, almost exactly like Erend’s.  


The Vanguard.  


I didn’t have long to remain like that, however, as the woman moved her hand to my shoulder blade and began to usher me onward.  


“It’s best not to keep the king waiting, you know.”  


“R-right.”  


I slipped through the opening in the line of soldiers and began to make my way across the rather long bridge to the palace, beyond. Each footstep rang in my ears like thunder as I watched the glittering, towering structure before me loom ever larger. When I reached the stone dais at the far end, I found yet another group of armored figures greeted me, but the one in the forefront seemed particularly familiar.  


“Aloy, it’s good to see you,” Marad said, his voice carrying no hints of any actual warmth or excitement, although his usual predatory smile quickly appeared on his face. “The Sun King awaits your audience.”  


Without waiting to see if I was truly following him, he spun on one heel and began to ascend the stairs to my right. Something about seeing them without a line of people seeking to file some form of request or grievance for the king only reinforced the feeling of eerie emptiness and stillness that had fallen over Meridian.  


It was like the whole city was collectively holding its breath.  


When we reached the top of the stairs, I found that the throne was empty, but voices echoed from the seating area through the large doors behind it. Marad turned toward the sounds, quickly passing through yet another line of guards, this time a mixture of Carja and Oseram, before revealing several figures seated about one of the low tables of the usually much more casual meeting space. All heads were already turned toward us at the very sound of our footsteps, but as I finally stepped past the protective wall of guards, several of the figures quickly leapt to their feet.  


“Fire and spit, she made it!”  


Whatever Avad tried to say was drowned out by Erend’s raucous laughter before he quickly stepped around the table and charged toward me, throwing his arms wide. Before I had a chance to try to offer protest, he wrapped me in a tight embrace that immediately sent pain shooting across my back and through my side. Actual tears began to form in the corners of my eyes and I tried to pat him on the back and mumble something about letting go, but it didn’t seem to help.  


Moments later, thankfully, he released me and I quickly wiped the backs of my hands over my cheeks.  


“You look like you were dragged through the desert from the back of a Strider,” he laughed before noticing the wetness below my eyes, prompting his grin to quickly change to a look of concern. “What’s wrong?”  


“Just… little sore and… banged up… still…”  


“Oh, I-I’m sorry, I… dammit, I forgot!”  


“It’s okay,” I said quickly, trying to laugh, but the wince from the pain in my side did little to dispel his concern.  


“Come on, take a seat,” he offered, placing a hand on my shoulder much more gently than before and ushering me forward.  


Before I had a chance to say anything, I found myself falling onto one of the plush couches, the weapons on my back resting somewhat awkwardly behind me before I managed to extricate them and place them on the ground beside me.  


With a sigh, I turned my gaze to the group of people gathered about the table. All but one of the faces were familiar, with Erend seated to my left and Avad across from me. The unknown figure was a woman with dark skin, dressed in a dark purple tunic beneath what looked almost like a corset made of black plates of metal. Her hair was tied back into a single knot at the back of her head, held up and out of the way by a red headband that also seemed to support a black and gold metal headpiece. Everything about her, from her clothes to her posture to the half-smirk that tugged at her lips as her eyes sized me up and down, screamed of someone who was used to being a commanding presence. Oddly enough, I found myself attempting to rise up to meet the challenge of her gaze, rather than trying to duck away from it.  


“Aloy, welcome back, once again,” Avad began before gesturing to the woman beside him. “I don’t believe you two have met.”  


“Oh, I would have remembered if we had,” she replied, her tone teasing and playful, but with the faintest hints of something else in its undertones. “I’ve heard whispers, though—in some cases drunken ramblings, as well—”  


Her eyes flicked to my left for a moment and I could almost feel Erend’s posture tense beside me at her glance. A moment later, however, her attention was focused on me, once again.  


“Rides machines, fancy spear, _delightful_ freckles…”  


She flashed a smile at me that bared her teeth and I couldn’t help but be reminded of staring down a Sawtooth or a Ravager. The palms of my hands had grown slick with an inexplicable cold sweat that I tried to subtly wipe off on my skirt, but I had a feeling that nothing got past her gaze.  


“Some have even said you have a conscious… how extraordinary.”  


“That’s enough,” Avad sighed, although his tone seemed somewhat amused.  


The woman shot him a grin before turning back to me, once again.  


“Who are you?” I asked tentatively, finally managing to swallow the lump in my throat.  


“My name is Vanasha,” she said, placing a hand extravagantly on her chest. “You could say I am a whisper of reason in the howling pit of insanity that is our world, now… or perhaps somewhat more accurately… the secret right hand of the Sun King that’s even more so than Marad, here.”  


She turned her disarming grin to the stone-faced man nearby, but he barely seemed to react to her, so she focused on me, once again.  


“I help out Avad in ways that… he may or may not ask me.”  


I raised my eyebrows slightly, which caused her to let out a low, soft laugh.  


“Not quite in the ways you seem to have imagined, though.”  


I noticed Avad’s face turn red for a moment before he cleared his throat and attempted to regain his composure.  


“Well, now that introductions are out of the way, let’s discuss the problem at hand… the looming shadow that has been cast over Meridian.”  


The playfulness immediately disappeared from Vanasha’s face as Avad’s finally returned to a normal color.  


“As I’m sure you saw on your way in, Aloy, we have seen evidence of these cultists you’ve mentioned close to Meridian, already,” the Sun King began, turning to me.  


“A battalion cut through a section of land not two miles from one of the main roads into the city,” Marad interjected. “The few who escaped the slaughter told stories of men leading an army of fearsome, unnatural machines that showed no remorse, and immediately targeted anything living within sight.”  


Bile rose in my throat for a moment as my hands curled into fists around the edge of the seat cushion on either side of me.  


“ _The culling’s already begun…_ ”  


“To be safe, we sent out soldiers to any of the surrounding villages, camps, and townships to bring any families back within Meridian, itself, as well as those from the farmlands below,” Avad continued. “Those who were strong, able, and willing to fight were enlisted into an incredibly brief training with the Vanguard and Carja soldiers to assist in protection of the city. Despite this… I fear this may still be too little.”  


Silence fell over our group for a few moments before he took a deep breath in through his nose, releasing it in a heavy sigh a moment later.  


“Almost shocking of all, however, were the Nora Braves who appeared at our doorstep yesterday.”  


With that, I immediately straightened up, eyes widening slightly.  


“They’re here?”  


“They refused to stay within the city, itself, but have instead set up camp just outside the city limits.”  


Typical.  


I had to fight back a smirk and cleared my throat in a further attempt to hide it.  


“They came bearing an… interesting story, however,” Vanasha chimed in, eyes boring into me, as if searching for a sign of something that I couldn’t figure out. “They told of their ‘Anointed’, who fought the forces of the Metal Devil and lived. She sounded a little familiar, if I’m not mistaken.”  


My face began to grow hot as I stared back at her, clenching my jaw in an attempt to steel my expression under her scrutiny.  


“Aloy…” Avad began, his voice soft, but insistent, “if you know anything of this enemy that has recently passed Meridian… please, tell us.”  


I continued to stare back at Vanasha for several long moments as her lips began to pull farther and farther back into a smirk until I finally forced myself to look away, turning my attention back to Avad. What I found as I turned toward him, however, was something that took me by surprise. The pleading, desperate look on his face was something so unbefitting of a king that I could almost forget he was any different than any of the Nora I had seen in the mountain moments after…  


“What do you want to know?” I finally managed, my voice much more gravelly than I had expected.  


“Everything.”  


“I don’t know about ‘everything,’ but I’ll tell you what I can.”  


I proceeded to tell them what I could reasonably explain about the Eclipse: their backstory that I knew of, their leader, their ties to the Shadow Carja, the “devil” they worshipped, and finally their goals.  


“The Eclipse may have their eyes set on Meridian, but HADES doesn’t want it at all. It wants the Spire, and if it gets there… it’ll send out a call, waking more of these ancient machines—more than we could ever defeat. All will be lost.”  


I found that my hands were clenched tightly around the fabric of my skirt, and I purposefully attempted to relax them, but the motion felt incredibly stiff and unnatural.  


“We _can’t_ let that happen.”  


“I’m… I understand,” Avad began, confusion clouding his features, “but—my responsibility lies with Meridian.”  


My teeth ground as a quiet growl formed in the back of my throat.  


“Meridian isn’t the target, Avad. You have to defend the Spire.”  


“Perhaps the Vanguard, your Radiance?” Marad suddenly chimed in, glancing between Avad and Erend.  


“Just say the word.”  


Avad glanced toward Erend, who had suddenly sat forward, his eyes fixed on the Sun King as his jaw remained clenched.  


“Yes, go.”  


“I’ll gather my men,” Erend said, nodding as he leapt to his feet, but paused as he glanced down at me, once again. “You’re sure, Aloy?”  


“I’ve never been more so,” I replied, nodding.  


That was all he needed, apparently, as he spun on his heel and marched toward the Oseram Vanguard standing nearby.  


“All right, gentlemen, we’ve got a new assignment. Vanguardsmen, fall in.”  


With that, the heavily armored soldiers followed after him, the small troupe marching out of the throne room and out of sight down the stairs. The sounds of their heavy footsteps and jingling armor continued to echo through the large, open doors until I was reasonably certain they had to be actually crossing the bridge.  


“Now, Aloy,” Avad began, bringing my attention back to him, once again. “Will you speak to the Nora about their assistance?”  


“Yes, but—”  


“At least some will go to the Spire, I know,” he interrupted, nodding patiently. “All I ask is that if any are able and willing to assist outside the gate to the village at the base of the elevators, please ask them.”  


I hesitated for a moment, chewing the inside of my cheek. We needed everyone we could to prevent HADES from reaching the Spire… but some help at the gate could potentially help stop it before it even got there.  


“I’ll ask,” I replied, nodding.  


“Good, good,” Avad said absentmindedly, turning to Vanasha and Marad. “Have the contacts from the outer settlements arrived?”  


“She just arrived late this afternoon, your Radiance,” Marad replied. “She is most likely hard at work, right now.”  


“She? There’s only one?”  


“With any luck, we will only need one.”  


I glanced between the three of them, feeling rather at a loss. They weren’t talking about me… right?  


“Let us hope,” Avad sighed, finally turning back to me, once again. “You mentioned your injuries when you entered, Aloy… how are you feeling?”  


“I’m good enough,” I shot back, shifting involuntarily at the sudden stab of pain through my side and across my back.  


Avad’s doubtful look only made me grit my teeth as my hands tightened into fists at my sides, once again.  


“I’m not useless.”  


“I am not implying you are,” he said quickly. “I would merely suggest you get as much rest as you can.”  


“I have things to do.”  


“A guest room in the palace is yours, if you want it.”  


I wasn’t expecting him to drop the argument so quickly, so I was left staring back at him in silence for several long moments, blinking slowly, before I quickly shook my head to bring myself back to the moment.  


“Uh… thanks.”  


“It is the least I can do,” he replied, nodding.  


A brief moment of awkward silence fell over the group for several moments before I cleared my throat, breaking it, once again.  


“Where have the Nora set up camp?”  


“I believe it was just outside the Northern entrance to the city,” Avad began, looking to the other two for confirmation.  


“Indeed, just outside where the camp of merchants previously stood,” Marad said.  


“Previously?”  


“Due to recent events, some fled, while the others who remained were granted entrance on the terms of safe haven.”  


“Terms of safe haven?”  


“They are not allowed to set up shop, and are not granted the standard allowances to start conducting business within the city limits, even once the threat has passed.”  


“ _Who’d have thought trade laws would still be so harsh in the future…_ ”  


“Anyway,” I said quickly, rubbing my eyes tiredly, “I will speak with the Nora and will attempt to ask them to offer some assistance to the Western Gate, but I will have to stress that a considerably amount of their numbers should be devoted to the Spire.”  


Marad looked somewhat displeased with this, but Avad nodded, once again.  


“I trust your judgement. Will you go to them now?”  


“No time like the present.”  


The three of them stared back at me blankly and I simply sighed.  


“Yes. There’s not a lot of time for ‘later’ anyway…”  


With that, I gathered my weapons from the ground beside me and rose to my feet, Avad and Vanasha following suit. As I began to move toward the doors to the throne room, I became aware that someone was following beside me and glanced over. The mysterious woman in purple flashed a smile at me and I simply raised my eyebrows in return.  


“I hope you don’t mind if I tag along.”  


“Don’t trust me?”  


“It’s my job not to.”  


The hair on the back of my neck stood up at her words, but her smile never seemed to falter. Swallowing thickly, I nodded in response. The two of us continued down the steps toward the stone dais at the end of the long bridge that separated the glimmering palace from the rest of the city. The wall of Oseram Vanguard still stood at the far end, although I noticed that they appeared to be missing a few men from when I had entered.  


The sound of our approaching footsteps prompted one or two to glance back, and the one on the right side made room for us to pass. I noticed as we slipped through the opening that it appeared to be the same woman from earlier, and she gave me a brief nod before Vanasha stepped between us and gestured down the street to our left.  


“This way, little huntress.”  


I gave her an odd look, but continued in the direction she had indicated. The entire time, she remained to my side, but also somewhat behind me, as we passed through the quiet, cramped streets of Meridian. When we reached the Northern bridge, another line of soldiers greeted us, this time decked in the ornate armor of the Carja guards. Several of them gave me strange looks before quickly straightening up and making way at the sight of Vanasha beside me.  


As we passed through, I gave her a look with my eyebrows raised.  


“The city guard know me well,” she replied, somehow sensing the question at the tip of my tongue.  


I thought about asking exactly how they knew her, but decided against it and instead turned back to the rather long trek across the bridge ahead of us. When we finally reached the far side, I found the former bustling scene empty, sending a shiver down my spine. It was one thing to explore ancient ruins that were so devoid of life, but to see an area that I had seen with my own eyes just like them…  


“ _Well, technically you did see some of those ‘ruins’ yourself…_ ”  


A brief of throb of pain appeared in my temples and I rubbed at them with my fingers, closing my eyes for a moment.  


That was enough of that for right now.  


When I reopened them, however, I noticed a flickering light near the top of the small hill to my left and I tilted my head slightly.  


“The Nora camp, I presume,” Vanasha said.  


“Would make sense, wouldn’t it?”  


The other woman chuckled softly and I couldn’t help but smirk, as well, before we quickly set off toward the distant signs of campfires. As we approached the top of the hill, several dark figures appeared outlined against the rapidly darkening sky, the outlines of weapons clearly visible in their hands. Several moments later, however, they lowered them and one raised their hand in greeting.  


“Aloy!”  


I waved in response, but was unable to make out more distinct features of the figure until we were within a few yards, the sun setting more or less behind him proving difficult to stare into as we approached. Finally, when I recognized Varl, I found that both a sense of relief and unease came over me.  


“You made it, I see,” I said as I came to a stop before him and the other Braves who appeared to be stationed on guard, “and faster than expected.”  


“There is still much to repair at home,” Varl sighed, “but the high matriarchs bid that we head to Meridian now.”  


“Really? Even Jezza?”  


“Even Jezza,” he replied, laughing softly. “They said that if the situation was as dire as you described, then our assistance here would be needed to ensure that there would be a time and reason for healing of the Sacred Lands.”  


“ _Wow, that is… surprisingly profound._ ”  


“That’s…” I began, unsure of how to respond aloud.  


“Unlike them? Most of us thought so, too,” Varl finished, nodding.  


“B-but… I mean… I’m grateful…”  


Varl’s lips pulled into a thin line as he nodded shortly, prompting me to shift uneasily on my feet.  


“It means a lot to me, Varl.”  


“Well, I gave my word, didn’t I?”  


A brief moment of awkward silence fell over us as I noticed his and the other Braves’ gazes drift over my shoulder and I glanced back to find Vanasha hanging several yards behind me, her arms folded and watching our conversation with a slight smile on her lips.  


“This is Vanasha,” I said quickly, gesturing to her. “She’s… with the Sun King.”  


“Oh, it’s not quite as scandalous as you make it sound,” she called, moving toward us as her arms fell to her sides casually. “I work for him.”  


“You are… a soldier?” Varl asked, eying her warily.  


“Of sorts,” she replied, flashing him a predatory grin. “Perhaps a soldier like a Stalker is a hunter.”  


Varl glanced to the other Braves behind him, but none of them seemed to have a better idea what she meant than he did. As I glanced toward Vanasha, I caught the smug, self-satisfied expression on her face before I turned back to Varl.  


“Anyway, Varl, I came to talk to you about this threat.”  


He turned back to me, one eyebrow raised.  


“It’s coming very soon… perhaps sooner than we expected.”  


“We can be ready in a matter of minutes,” he said.  


“Good, because we need to be ready now.”  


“What’s wrong? Has there been signs of the enemy?”  


“Not now, but some of those who tore through the Sacred Lands already passed by Meridian within the past few days,” I explained. “They’ve killed many innocent people, already.”  


Varl’s jaw clenched visibly as I saw his grip around his spear tighten.  


“They passed by and onto the West, for the time being, but I can’t imagine they’ll wait long before returning.”  


“So we move to the western side of the city?”  


“Yes, and to two specific points.”  


“Two? You want us to divide our forces?”  


“It’s… complicated,” I explained, “but I need to ask that you send most of the Nora to the Spire.”  


“The Spire?”  


I turned, scanning the horizon until I spotted the oddly rectangular building stretching into the sky.  


“There, the tower in the distance,” I explained.  


Varl and the other Braves followed my gesture, all of them frowning slightly.  


“Why is this one tower of such importance?” he asked, turning back to me.  


“The Metal Devil that controls the machines and guides the Eclipse… it wants it. If it gets what it wants, it will raise even more of them from the dead, and if that happens…”  


“Everything dies.”  


“Just like the Sacred Land, but on a massive scale.”  


That seemed to flip a switch in the Braves, their expressions turning from confused or skeptical to determined, all of them holding their weapons at the ready, suddenly.  


“Where is this other point?”  


“The Western gate below Meridian,” I explained. “There will be Carja forces there already, but they have asked for assistance, as they are unsure it will be enough.”  


Varl and the Braves exchanged glances for several moments before he turned back to me. Just as he opened his mouth to say something else, though, another voice called out from farther into the Nora camp.  


“Aloy, just the person I wanted to see.”  


Everyone turned toward the approaching figure and I couldn’t help but feel even more uneasy at the sight of Sona approaching.  


“War Chief Sona,” I said, nodding in greeting.  


“I was hoping I would be able to speak to you soon,” she continued, coming to a stop beside Varl. “This… place is…”  


She trailed off, shaking her head slowly.  


“It is not somewhere the Nora belong… where I belong.”  


“I know, but—”  


“But I will fight the Metal Devil that threatens us all.”  


My mouth hung open for several moments before I closed it, nodding curtly.  


“We are few, but we offer our weapons and our spirit,” she continued.  


“I’m… sorry to put you through all this, but… thank you.”  


“Do not be sorry,” she said brusquely, shaking her head. “My spear, my word.”  


Silence fell over us for several long moments before I cleared my throat, playing with one of the loose ends of twine that held one of the various pouches to my belt.  


“So, as I was saying to Varl, I come to ask that the Nora provide assistance at two separate points.”  


“Which?”  


“The Spire and the main Western Gate into the village below Meridian.”  


“Why?”  


“The Metal Devil is after the Spire, not Meridian,” I explained, yet again. “It will stop at nothing to seize it, and if it does…”  


“The world goes with it.”  


“Exactly.”  


Sona nodded in understanding.  


“Why the gate?”  


“The Carja have asked for any assistance you can spare, if only a few Braves, as they fear their forces will not be enough.”  


The War Chief let out a short laugh, her lips twisting into a smirk.  


“The Carja admitting weakness? Now that is the kind of news you may bring me anytime, Aloy.”  


I shifted uneasily, sparing a quick glance in the direction of Vanasha, but she remained silent. Sona followed my glance, clearly noticing the woman as she suddenly straightened up, her face growing stern, once again.  


“I take it she is one of their ‘royals’ I have heard about?”  


“Not exactly,” I said.  


“A friend?”  


“Also, not exactly.”  


Sona returned her gaze to me, raising one eyebrow in a manner almost identical to Varl from moments ago.  


“It’s… a long story.”  


“Perhaps you will have to enlighten me at another time,” the War Chief said. “I can spare five Braves to the gate, while the rest of us will go to this Spire you have mentioned.”  


“How many of you are there, total?”  


“Twenty.”  


“ _That’s not a lot…_ ”  


She must have seen how my face fell, as she raised her chin slightly, her jaw set.  


“We have all sworn to fight in the name of the All Mother, alongside her Anointed,” she said. “We may be few, but we will either be returning to the Sacred Lands in triumph, or not at all.”  


A quick glance around at the other Braves showed similarly resolute expressions and I offered a tight-lipped nod in acknowledgement.  


“When do you foresee this Metal Devil’s arrival?” Sona asked, bringing my attention back to her.  


“Soon… very soon.”  


“We will move into position now, then,” she replied, turning to Varl. “Rouse the Braves, tell them we move now.”  


“Yes, War Chief,” he nodded, turning to hurry into the camp.  


“Where will you be?” Sona asked, turning back to me.  


“There are a few more preparations I need to make in the city, but I will go where the fight needs me.”  


A smile began to pull at the War Chief’s lips and I felt an oddly warm feeling appearing in my chest.  


“You would be among the finest of the Braves, if you chose to be.”  


A twinge of something darker dampened the feeling from a moment ago, but I quickly pushed it all down.  


“I was raised by one of them.”  


An unreadable expression passed through Sona’s eyes before she nodded slightly.  


“I remember.”  


Our gazes lingered for several moments longer before she began to turn toward the Braves behind her.  


“I have preparations of my own to make. I will see you in battle, Aloy.”  


I offered a noncommittal “mhm” in response, unsure of what else to say, before turning toward Vanasha. The woman watched the Braves behind me for several moments longer before turning her attention to me as I approached.  


“I like her,” she said. “No nonsense… to a fault maybe, but she means well.”  


“So now you can read minds?”  


“No, but I can read people well.”  


“So are you reading me?”  


“Always, little huntress,” she shot back, the same predatory smile she had worn with Varl before returning.  


“I would ask, but…”  


“In time,” she chided.  


With a heavy sigh, I motioned toward the bridge into Meridian.  


“Shall we head back?”  


She mimicked my gesture and I took that as a sign of agreement, so I led the way back down the trail toward the bridge. Almost as soon as we began walking, I noticed how Vanasha now appeared to be walking directly beside me, evidently not quite as concerned with where I was going as before.  


“You know, I also see where you get your hair from,” she suddenly chimed in, causing me to jump slightly in surprise.  


“Oh?”  


“I might have to ask you for some tips, sometime.”  


I let out a short, dry laugh.  


“In time.”  


I glanced over at her to see her finally let out an authentic laugh, tilting her head back as she did.  


“I like you already, little huntress.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise character appearance! Can you guess who this "contact from the outer settlements" is?
> 
> Find out next week on Drag--I mean, Binary!


	28. How the End Begins

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy hot-and-sticky Monday from where I live.
> 
> As the title of this chapter implies... we're getting close.
> 
> You all know the line that it's based on, I assume.
> 
> Also, in the interest of transparency, I didn't plan things as well as I thought, and that "cliffhanger" of "who's that mystery person?" that I mentioned is actually going to be resolved next week... sorry.
> 
> Anyway, this chapter is a big one... not necessarily in word count, as its only marginally longer than the "typical" chapter in this story, but a lot happens.
> 
> Enjoy.

Our trek back into the city seemed to take considerably less time, but as we passed through the line of Carja guards, I found a yawn escaping me. Something pushed against my shoulder and I glanced back to find Vanasha giving me a smirk.  


“Need to rest, for once?”  


“For once?”  


“Well, to do all that you’ve done in the time that you’ve done it… I can’t imagine you’ve been doing a lot of sleeping.”  


I glared back at her for a moment or two before shrugging.  


“Fair.”  


She laughed, shaking her head.  


“I’ll show you to the room Avad mentioned. We’ll make sure someone comes to get you if the attack arrives before you wake.”  


Our walk back to the palace continued in silence, even as we passed through the line of Vanguard at the entrance to the bridge and subsequently down through the bowels of the stone structure, itself. The hallways all looked vaguely similar to the ones I had seen between the infirmary and the throne room, leading me to quickly feel as if I were lost.  


“ _Better hope someone comes to get you…_ ”  


Yeah, no kidding.  


Suddenly, Vanasha came to a stop in front of a door and I nearly ran into her. She grinned, but pushed it open, gesturing inside the room beyond.  


“Here you are, little huntress, a private suite for one… for now.”  


I gave her a look and she offered me a wink, which only brought a heat to my cheeks, so I quickly turned away and glanced inside the room. My expectations had been something along the lines of the infirmary room, or perhaps a jail cell, of sorts, but what greeted me through the doorway was beyond any of that.  


“The Sun King treats his friends well.”  


I turned to Vanasha, eyes widened slightly.  


“Friends?”  


“You have saved his life, no?” she shot back, raising her eyebrows. “I would say that would be a good reason to consider you an ally, if not even a friend, in as much as a king has friends.”  


I glanced back into the room for a moment before turning back to Vanasha, who laughed softly.  


“We could all die tomorrow. Take it for tonight.”  


When she put it that way…  


I laughed softly, nodding.  


“Thanks.”  


“I look forward to seeing these fierce skills I’ve heard so much about,” she added, just as I turned to enter the room.  


“Well, then I hope I won’t let you down.”  


She smirked, leaning on the doorframe as she reached toward the handle.  


“Sleep well, little huntress.”  


With that, she closed the door behind me to a heavy thud. I stared back at it, waiting for the click of a lock moving into place, but it never came. Instead, her footsteps passed by before retreating into the distance. Finally, when I was left in total silence, I turned back to the room and slowly began to move through it, looking around at how the Sun King apparently treated those he respected.  


The bed was the most extravagant one I had ever seen, with curtains of Carja Silk hanging from the ceiling and tied to each corner. The blanket over the top of it was thinner than the heavy, fur style I was used to, but as I ran my hand over the top of it, I could immediately tell that this was meant for the hotter, desert weather… but I couldn’t deny that it felt like the most comfortable fabric I’d ever touched. It was something like the silks I had been given after waking up in the infirmary, but somehow possibly better.  


Besides the bed, the room was much larger than I expected. A small table was situated in a round, open area just past it, sitting directly before a wide doorway that led out onto a small balcony. The outer edges of the doorway were lined with colored glass, and I could only imagine what it looked like with the sun shining through it. I moved into the room with the table, glancing toward the wooden piece of furniture set against the far wall that stored multiple bottles full of colorful liquids, before making my way to the balcony.  


As I reached the railing around it, I carefully peered over the edge and immediately felt a strange sinking feeling in my stomach and looked up toward the distant horizon, instead. The thought that I was hundreds of yards in the air, on top of a mesa, was enough, but looking over the edge of the balcony only made me even more aware of it.  


“Funny, wasn’t that afraid of heights, before…”  


“ _Really?_ ”  


Well, that might explain that.  


“ _Hey, now._ ”  


With a heavy sigh, I turned back into the room, shuffling across it until I reached the bed, where I quickly removed all of my weapons and propped them against the wall nearby. Now free of their weight, I stretched my arms over my head, feeling the soreness start to rise in my back, but I quickly pushed it aside as I lowered my arms, removing the outer armor of my outfit moments later and laying it on the ground before the weapons, as well. Once I was down to the leather tunic and leggings that always remained beneath the armor, I ran my hand over them, only to grimace at how wet they felt.  


“Need to wash these soon, I guess…”  


No time now, though.  


With a groan, I took a seat on the edge of the bed, feeling how much I sank into it and letting out an involuntary sigh of contentment.  


I could almost get used to this…  


Better not, though.  


“ _I mean…_ ”  


Take it when I could get it, I know.  


With another sigh, I gingerly turned to lie on my back, but the pain that exploded across it from the weight quickly forced me onto my side. The dull ache still remained, but it was less painful than moments before. With one last deep inhale, I closed my eyes and quickly felt myself slipping into unconsciousness.  


Almost immediately, the sensation of light began to build around me until I found myself staring at the same room I had just fallen asleep in, although this time there were candles lit all about it. I scanned the scene with my eyes until I caught sight of movement at the table before me. My gaze focused on it until the motion consolidated into a figure seated at the table, holding a glass in one hand as they stared at it, slowly swirling its contents.  


“So… after everything… you’re back here again.”  


I let out a quiet groan, squeezing my eyes closed.  


“You know that’s no use.”  


“Why can’t I just get some normal sleep before I have to face the potential death of the world?” I mumbled, opening my eyes, once again.  


“Oh, you know already,” the younger Elisabet sighed, twirling her glass, once again, “you’re asleep through this, already.”  


“That’s why I said _normal_ sleep,” I sighed, pushing myself to a seated position on the edge of the bed.  


“Well… since when has your life been normal?”  


I tried to think of a witty comeback, but the words failed me and I simply let out a beleaguered sigh, shaking my head.  


“Come, let’s talk.”  


“Do I have a choice?”  


“No, but it’s more polite to sit with the person talking to you than to shout across the room.”  


I rolled my eyes, but pushed myself to my feet. To my surprise, the aches and pains in my side and back were gone, and I quickly pressed a hand to my left side, only to find that no pain followed the motion.  


“See? Not everything in dreams is bad.”  


With a sigh, I rose to my feet, padding across the room before taking a seat at the table with the creak of the wooden chair across the stone floor.  


“So, here we are, repeating history,” the young Elisabet said, taking a sip from whatever dark red liquid was in her glass.  


“Are we?”  


“Well, it’s one Sobeck versus the end of the world, isn’t it?”  


I rolled my eyes, leaning back in the chair.  


“I mean, we can hope you’ll do better than the older me…”  


“Better?!” I spat, suddenly leaning forward against the table. “She practically designed the means to rebuild the world, herself!”  


“Oh, poor child,” the young redhead chided, clucking her tongue against the back of her teeth. “You’re so deluded.”  


“Oh yeah? Tell me why.”  


“She designed a computer, an AI, that was responsible for rebooting the world, if you will. You act as if she wielded the controls, herself.”  


“I know she didn’t—”  


“She built the vehicle which GAIA drove to what you see,” she interrupted. “While she died off, like everyone else.”  


My teeth audibly ground as I placed my hands on the table, my fingers curling into fists.  


“A single person can achieve great things,” she continued, turning from her glass to me, finally, “but that doesn’t mean they get to see them. Are you prepared for that fate?”  


“Yes.”  


She continued to stare at me, her lips pulling wider and wider into a grin before she slowly placed her glass on the table.  


“Liar.”  


I pushed back from the table, eyes widened.  


“What?”  


“I called you a liar.”  


“I heard.”  


“Then it’s self-explanatory.”  


“No, it’s not.”  


The young Elisabet sighed, sliding her glass between her hands across the surface of the table.  


“You can talk a big talk, and ask _so_ many people to potentially die for you… yet, when it comes down to it, can you say that you hold the same belief?” she challenged. “Can you say that you will fight HADES until you win, or you won’t see tomorrow, and not feel a tinge of guilt, of fear?”  


“That doesn’t mean I won’t,” I spat. “Elisabet may have said she was at peace, but that doesn’t mean—”  


The young redhead slammed her hand down on the table, interrupting me.  


“You can’t speak to what she felt!” she shouted. “You weren’t there!”  


“I—”  


“Did you make the decision to leave the facility, sit on that bench, and just accept death?”  


“No—”  


“So then what fucking right do you have to act as if you know anything?”  


I glared back at the image for several long moments before she suddenly let out a heavy sigh, rising from her seat at the table.  


“You know what, maybe it’s time you learned a thing or two.”  


“What are you—?”  


Before I could react, the younger image suddenly placed her hands on the sides of my head, pressing her palms against my temples. Almost immediately, I was cast into darkness, only for the next blink to reveal the light of the world, once again, but something was different. No longer was I staring at the candlelit room in the palace, but instead I was staring at a round table in a large, metal room. The images of several men in odd, but ornate outfits stared back at me, their faces registering expressions ranging from shocked to furious.  


“What are you saying, Doctor Sobeck?”  


I tried to look around at the rest of the room, but my body refused to cooperate, no matter how hard I tried.  


“I’m saying that the world is going to end, gentlemen, no matter what we do.”  


“You… you can’t just resign almost nine billion people to death like that!” another one of them cried.  


“I know these machines, and what they’re capable of,” my voice said, but the words felt entirely unfamiliar, “because they’re based off of my designs.”  


The last few expressions around the table that weren’t in the realm of shocked or dumbfounded quickly joined the others as a heavy sigh escaped me.  


“When I worked for FAS, I was asked to design some of the core concepts that made their way into these machines,” my voice continued, echoing about the cold, harshly-lit room. “I know that their code can’t be cracked, because Ted’s people used my work to build the final version.”  


“Wait, you built it, can’t you—?”  


“No, I can’t.”  


My arms folded over my chest as my head began to shake slowly.  


“The algorithm they based the Black Quartz encryption on was… an idea we had,” my voice continued. “We were sick of these ‘hacktivist’ groups taking over the worker bots in the field and reprogramming them to do things like mulch the human workers into pulp or throw their very expensive bodies into the nearest power substation, so we came up with an idea from the simplest question: how does a computer talk to another computer?”  


The men continued to stare back at me with no greater sense of understanding. I was beginning to feel lost, myself.  


“When a leading worldwide tech company decided to see what would happen when they let two of their decently sophisticated chat bots talk to each other, they began to develop their own language. Now, this was relatively harmless at the time, and the people in charge just pulled the plug before these two chat bots organized the robot revolution,” my voice continued as I began to pace behind the men seated at the table. “Now, Ted, on the other hand, wanted to see what would happen if they hadn’t stopped them. We came up with the idea of setting some simple, self-governing rules, and then turning the AI loose on itself. Now, when I worked there, we only got as far as the rules and the preliminary platform on which to build this idea, but I always had a back door, a ‘killswitch’ if you will, that allowed me to pull the plug at any time.”  


I finally came to a stop between two of the older men in the group, glancing between them for a moment before lifting my head to look around the table.  


“Ted did not.”  


“What’s your point, Doctor Sobeck?” one of the men before me growled.  


“That the things I saw even in my own research, in a tight, contained environment, awed and scared me. I knew, even then, if I didn’t have that backdoor… that would have been it.”  


Silence fell over the room, save the hum of something overhead, which seemed to grow to fill the entire space.  


“Ted took all of my work I did for him, all of which done with the idea of preserving life on Earth, and crammed it into his deathbots. I should be mad that he inadvertently made me the mother of the apocalypse… but there’s no time for that, now.”  


“So what is your plan, then?”  


My head turned to the right, my gaze meeting one of the men in particular, who nodded and tapped something on a small screen before him.  


“Operation Enduring Victory,” he supplied as a large, golden logo appeared over the table, slowly revolving in place.  


“What kind of jingoistic bullshit is this?” one of the men spat, leaning back in his chair.  


“One that is meant to inspire hope, when there is none.”  


All of the men turned toward me, once again, but I ignored them, staring up at the logo as it changed shape into a globe, continuing to spin as the land masses slowly began to turn shades of red and gold.  


“Zero Dawn needs time, more than anything,” my voice continued. “Money and resources will help, but all of it will mean shit if it doesn’t have time to come together. Enduring Victory is just the jingoistic bullshit we need to inspire the people to fight back with everything they have… until the very end.”  


“You’re… you’re asking us to throw our own people into a goddamn meat grinder,” one of the men said softly.  


“You’re a military man,” my voice called out, my gaze focusing on him with an incredible intensity that brought the feeling of a shiver running down my spine, even as my body didn’t seem to react in any way. “What would you say is more admirable: dying on your feet fighting for something you believe… or dying on your back, watching your enemy roll over you as if you were nothing?”  


He stared vacantly into the air for several long moments before blinking slowly, looking toward me.  


“You’re asking us to commit genocide. That’s a war crime, Doctor Sobeck.”  


I suddenly stepped forward, leaning onto the table as I glared across it at him.  


“Didn’t you hear me a minute ago?” my voice said, quiet but as sharp as the tip of a dagger. “I’ve already committed it, with or without Enduring Victory.”  


Silence fell over the room, once again, for several long seconds before the same man spoke.  


“So this is how you attempt to atone?”  


“No. Zero Dawn is what I want to give to humanity. There’s nothing I can do for myself, at this point.”  


Suddenly, the very air in the room seemed to freeze and I found my chest heaving, seemingly back under my control. I quickly placed my hands in the center of it, feeling the same leather tunic I had fallen asleep in beneath my fingertips. Just as I did, however, I realized that I was no longer staring at the image of the older man in the ornate uniform, but the intense glare of my mirror image, albeit with shorter hair and more signs of wrinkles around her lips and eyes.  


“And that, was a load of shit, too.”  


I whirled to my left to find my actual mirror image slowly pacing around the far side of the table.  


“Why are you doing this?” I managed.  


“Because you need to know, and what better way to show you than to dig deep into the realm of that ‘other person’ you’ve got inside your head?” the younger Elisabet spat.  


“W-what was Enduring Victory?”  


“Humanity’s last, great lie before it all died out… the first time,” she continued. “ _We_ , or rather _she_ —”  


The image gestured to the older Elisabet frozen in place across the table from me.  


“—came up with the idea, along with General Herres. The short version is: tell everyone just enough for them to think that finishing Zero Dawn will save them all so that they feel motivated to join the good fight against the Faro Swarm that was sweeping across the earth. Starting to feel a little familiar?”  


I slowly began to shake my head.  


“It’s not the same…”  


“Of course it’s not _exactly_ the same,” the younger Elisabet sighed, rolling her eyes, “but let’s face it: you don’t know the Master Override will even work. You’ve convinced innocent people to throw down their lives before the path of destruction in the hope that _you_ have enough time to figure it all out.”  


“You heard her!” I snapped, stamping my foot on the hard, metal ground to a cacophony of echoes that thankfully began to die down quickly. “Would you rather I just told everyone to lie down and die? Do you want that? You said it yourself: if I go, you do, too.”  


“And maybe part of me gets her, now,” the image said, reaching her older doppelganger and placing her hand on her shoulder, “why she just walked off into the wasteland, never to be seen again.”  


Suddenly, the image of the metal room before me disappeared, replaced instead with an open expanse of brown. It was so similar to what I remembered from the vision outside the ruins of GAIA Prime, and that one time at the Zero Dawn facility…  


No, it was even more familiar than that.  


I had been here.  


Once.  


It had been much less dusty and burnt… but no less empty.  


A blink later, however, and I found myself seated before the front of the house, staring up at its imposing figure against the dull light of the muted, brown sky behind it. A sigh seemed to escape me and my head slowly turned down to look in my right hand. My fingers turned over a small, blue and green orb attached to a gold chain. Shortly after, my gaze drifted to a small, glowing screen on the inside of my forearm.  


“Guess the world’s in your hands now, Aloy. Treat her well.”  


Oh no.  


No, no, no, no, no, no…  


I could only watch as my fingers danced over the small screen until a red, flashing box appeared in the center of it.  


“WARNING: TURN OFF LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEMS?”  


Please don’t…  


My fingers hesitated for a moment, but finally tapped the “yes” option. Almost immediately, I could feel each breath growing deeper, but my lungs ached greater and greater. Suddenly, my body seemed to suddenly come back under my control and I frantically began to jab at the screen on my forearm, but it had gone dark and unresponsive.  


No, no, no…  


My breaths were coming quicker, now, and each one felt shallower than the last. The world was already beginning to spin around me as I desperately reached toward my neck, clawing at the metal suit. My fingers finally found the locking mechanism and disengaged it. A soft hiss rang in my ears before I grabbed at the helmet and yanked it off. As I did, my eyes and mouth immediately began to burn.  


The rough, wind-whipped sand stung my exposed skin and immediately found its way into my threat and up my nostrils. Along with the sand, the very air, itself, seemed to burn in my lungs. The pain that had begun to well up in place of the slight burning, aching feeling from before was so much worse. My eyes were watering profusely, but I was vaguely able to make out the outline of the structure before me.  


If I could make it there…  


I tried to rise from my seat on the bench, but as I did, my legs quickly gave out on me and I limply fell to the ground. My arms moved beneath me, but they didn’t seem to have the strength to lift me, anymore. Each breath I took only inhaled more dirt and sand, causing my throat and lungs to burn stronger and stronger.  


No, this… this was torture.  


“This, my dear… is death.”  


Suddenly, the sand and the dirt seemed to disappear and I inhaled a deep, gasping breath, my lungs finally feeling the familiar touch of clean air, once again. When I lifted my head, I found myself seated at the table in the room Avad had offered me in the palace, my torso slumped over one side as the young Elisabet remained seated on the other.  


“Does it seem so inviting, now?”  


My teeth ground as I attempted to rise to my feet, but my knees buckled, still, and I fell to one knee beside the table. The other redhead sighed and rose from her chair, slowly moving around the furniture between us.  


“I already told you, it’s one thing to talk the talk… but we both know…”  


She suddenly came to a stop before me, crouching down, a twisted smirk set into her features.  


“You can’t fucking walk the walk.”  


Before I could lash out at her, verbally or physically, something else began to violently shake me and I found the world spinning around me, once again. I blinked rapidly until the image before me stabilized and I found myself staring up at a Carja guard dressed in full armor.  


“Ma’am… there are signs from the West.”  


I blinked several more times before the realization of what he meant hit me and I began to hurriedly push myself into a seated position.  


“Sun King Avad awaits you at the Temple of the Sun.”  


I nodded groggily, still trying to blink away the fog of sleep. The soldier’s job seemed to be satisfied, though, as he turned and walked quickly toward the door to the room, slipping into the hallway, but leaving it open.  


As soon as he was gone, I rubbed at my eyes with the heels of my hands, feeling the rough, sandy feeling along my eyelids as I did.  


Funny, I couldn’t have fallen asleep for all that long.  


“ _You were exhausted before…_ ”  


Look who decided to come back.  


“ _What?_ ”  


I sighed, shaking my head as I forced myself to my feet, groaning at the aches and pains that flared throughout my body. There was no time to assess them, though, as I hurriedly dragged on my armor, once again, and slid my weapons into place. Once I was sure everything was secure, I moved toward the door.  


As I stepped outside, I recoiled in surprise at the sight of the guard from earlier waiting just a few feet away, his hands anxiously gripping his pike tightly before slowly relaxing, the pattern repeating over and over. When he saw me, however, he straightened up, holding his weapon firmly at his side.  


“Are you ready, ma’am?”  


“As I’ll ever be,” I replied, nodding.  


“Follow me.”  


With that, he led the way through the winding hallways and stairwells until we suddenly appeared at the main dais at the end of the footbridge that connected the Palace to the rest of the city.  


There was no way I would have been able to find my own way in any sort of timely manner.  


“ _Good thing you had a guide._ ”  


That was the idea.  


The soldier and I quickly made our way across the wooden bridge until we passed the entrance where the line of Vanguardsmen, and Vanguardswoman, had once stood, although it now stood empty.  


“ _They must have moved to positions on the Western side._ ”  


Right. If Avad was at the Temple of the Sun, then he wasn’t at the Palace, anyway.  


The crowded streets were quieter than ever, the families with small children staring up at us with expressions of unrestrained fear that made my heart stop and my stomach fall.  


It felt like the end, and they knew it, too.  


“ _It won’t be, though._ ”  


We didn’t know that, though. History hadn’t already been written, this time.  


Finally, after yet another winding path through the maze-like streets of Meridian, we began to ascend the stone steps of the Temple. As we reached the large, open area at the top, I found it not full of priests and people uttering prayers or songs of some sort, but heavily armed soldiers. Several of them stood by some sort of large machines that appeared to be resting on wooden tables, a strange, rippling field surrounding one end of them.  


" _Looks like haze… something to do with heat?_ ”  


But what purpose would that serve?  


“ _Maybe they’re cold?_ ”  


I let out a quiet snorting sound, shaking my head.  


There was no way these were just large, portable heaters. The Carja may be vain, but they weren’t incapable when it came to preparing for a fight.  


As the soldier I had been following passed through a tall set of doors, I finally caught sight of Avad, although his back was turned as we approached. Gone were the flowing robes that I had only known him to wear; in their place was a set of ornate, yet well-built armor. It looked almost as if someone had repainted the machine parts used to make it, so that it shone white, red, and gold brilliantly, even in the pale light of the moon overhead.  


The sound of the guard’s and my approaching footsteps drew his attention, finally, and he glanced over his shoulder. When he caught sight of me, he turned more fully, nodding in greeting as I came to a stop beside him. I offered one of my own before he gestured to something in the distance, over the railing behind him. My gaze followed the motion until I caught sight of what he must have been staring at before we arrived.  


A bright, red and orange glow shone from the top of the cliffs overlooking the farmlands below Meridian, thick columns of black smoke rising above the light into the night sky and blocking out the stars.  


“Campfires, perhaps? Massing forces for the long march to the city gates?” Avad offered, turning to face the distant sight, once again as I came to a stop beside him.  


Part of me wanted to say yes… so much of me wanted to agree… but I knew better.  


“That’s not wood smoke.”  


Avad remained silent for several long seconds before inhaling deeply through his nose.  


“Then what is it?”  


I wanted to say something in response, but the hard lump that had appeared in my throat prevented me. Finally, when I managed to swallow it down, I took a deep breath, still keeping my eyes fixed on the distant signs of fire.  


“The end… again.”  


Avad began to turn toward me, but before he could, a loud explosion ripped across the valley, a visible shockwave ripping through the rock of the cliffs and rippling into the air above it. Dust, rocks, and debris sprayed into the air, and although it looked tiny from where we stood, I knew those “small rocks” had to be the size of massive boulders.  


As the cloud of dust and debris began to settle, it revealed a newly-made ramp of earth that easily led from the top of the cliffs to the farmlands below, and already, dark, skittering shapes rushed down it, like shadows sliding across the ground. My heart began to pound in my ears as I looked past the nimble Corruptors to the larger, more hulking shapes that had begun to slowly descend with them.  


“The Deathbringers you spoke of?”  


Avad’s voice cut through the daze that fallen over me, prompting me to blink rapidly and shake my head. For a moment, I almost swore I could see something even larger floating in the sky above the scene, more of the similarly small shapes springing from it, but another blink later and it was gone.  


Still, I couldn’t shake the feeling that this scene was all too familiar.  


“Aloy?”  


Avad’s voice was much more insistent this time, so I forcefully rubbed the heels of my hands into my eyes to try to bring myself back to the present.  


“Yes, they are,” I said, turning to him. “Lots of them.”  


Avad quickly whirled around, pointing to something behind us.  


“Ready the guns!”  


Confusion creased my face as I whirled around, as well. The men standing by the tables with the strange machines I had seen earlier quickly sprung into motion, grabbing said machines and hauling them toward us. Shouting came from all around us and I quickly tried to look around between it all, noting more Carja soldiers holding similar devices, the strange, haze-like field at the front end of them now seemingly charged with electricity.  


“ _They made their own weapons out of the machines…_ ”  


Before I could wonder any further as to how they worked, those nearest to me suddenly emitting a loud whirring noise, a panel on the back end opening as several, orange orbs from a nearby metal bin flew through the air and into the new opening. Once they were inside, the chamber closed and the soldiers adjusted the aim of their weapons. A single soldiers appeared between all of them, raising one hand above his head as he stared down at the machines quickly crossing the valley below.  


A moment later, he dropped his hand, letting out an indistinguishable shout. A cloud of the orange projectiles suddenly shot forth, trailing lines of bright, reddish-orange light behind them through the air. I watched them fall toward the ground below before slamming into it with bright flashes of light.  


“ _They’re bombs…_ ”  


That could be useful.  


Suddenly, the very ground beneath us shook and Avad staggered slightly, throwing his hands out to either side to steady himself, but I was already rushing toward a gap that had been torn in the railing, gripping the portion to the side that still stood tightly to look over the edge. A plume of smoke was rising from a point along the side of the Temple, pouring from what appeared to be a large hole in the side of the structure. As I tried to see through it, I noticed several shapes appearing from the opening. Moments later, one in particular stepped free of the choking, black smoke and my jaw clenched tightly.  


There was no mistaking the ornate, black and red armor on the hulking frame of a man.  


“Helis!”  


Avad reached for the sword at his side, preparing to draw it, but I suddenly whirled around, grabbing his hand to stop him.  


“No!” I cut in, drawing a look of confusion from him. “Rally the troops, send reinforcements.”  


“Aloy—”  


“He’s mine.”  


“He will cut you down!”  


A smirk twisted my lips as I approached the opening in the broken section of the railing.  


“I want to see him try.”  


With that, I sprinted toward the opening, unhooking a metal, claw-like tool from my belt. As I reached the lip, I quickly hooked one of the said metal claws over the edge of the railing still standing and instinctually launched myself over the edge, quickly grabbing onto the rope attached to the other end of the tool. As I began to fall, I wrapped my arms around the rope, my shoulders and back instantly protesting the weight of my body that had suddenly been put squarely upon them. Despite the screaming protest from my body, I managed to hold on until my feet landed firmly on the stone walkway at the bottom of the outer wall.  


I whirled around to find several Carja soldiers and Vanguardsmen engaged in fighting the Eclipse, but through all of the commotion, I found myself locking eyes with one in particular I had come here for. Helis’s lips twisted into a grin as he drew some kind of weapon from his belt. I hurriedly tried to untie myself from the rope on my belt, but my fingers couldn’t seem to function as well as I wanted, so I quickly ripped an arrow from my quiver and used the sharp side of the head to cut through it.  


A few seconds later, I managed to slice the last of the strands of rope and turned back to Helis just in time to see some kind of flaming projectile flying toward me. Without thinking, I ducked forward, landing on my shoulders and quickly rolling across my back. As I popped to my feet, once again, I found myself only feet from Helis, apparently to the surprise of both of us. Before he could recover, however, I let out a loud war cry and charged forward, brandishing the arrow in my hand like some kind of dagger.  


As I reached him, he finally seemed to snap out of his daze, but not before I swung the arrowhead toward his right arm. A cry of pain escaped him as the metal tip punctured his bicep, lodging itself in the muscle beneath. Our eyes met, once again, for a brief moment before something slammed into the side of my face and I was sent reeling, managing to stay on my feet for a few moments before I tripped on something and fell to my hands and knees.  


The entire right side of my face burned, but I only spared a quick moment to run my fingers over it. Finding no immediate signs of burns or anything more serious, I focused on scrambling to my feet, once again.  


“You… have vexed me… for long enough,” Helis panted, reaching up and gripping the wooden shaft of the arrow in his arm tightly.  


A moment later, he snapped it off, tossing the splintered wood aside, while leaving the shorter, metal tip still embedded in his arm, for now.  


“Should have fought me back in the Sun Ring, then,” I spat.  


“We all make mistakes.”  


With that, he raised his weapon, once again, revealing it to be a sling, a bright orange projectile already loaded in his grasp. I quickly dove to the side as a whistling sound passed to my left, right where I had been standing moments ago. As I rolled to my feet, once again, I yanked my bow free, drawing another arrow from my quiver as well. Before the arrowhead could pierce the exposed skin on his chest, he raised his arms, the metal bracers on his forearms taking the hit of the projectile and sending it harmlessly clattering to the floor.  


“Do not think it will be that easy.”  


“Good, because I’d be disappointed if it was.”  


“ _Can you stop trying to one-up each other with catch phrases for one second?_ ”  


A smirk tugged at my lips before motion in my peripheral vision caused me to drop into a crouch just before a flaming arrow soared over my head. I whirled to my left to find one of the other Eclipse soldiers beginning to nock another arrow to his bow, aiming for me.  


“ _Well that’s just not fair._ ”  


I quickly nocked one of my own, spinning to my left and loosing it toward the random Eclipse soldier. The arrow slammed into the wooden mask over his face, prompting him to stagger backward and drop his arrow to the ground. A moment later, one of the Carja soldiers appeared from behind him, driving his pike through the man’s back. Satisfied that he wasn’t going to be launching another arrow at me anytime soon, I turned back to Helis just in time to find him looming over me.  


My hand instinctually shot out, driving my fist into the side of his knee. Instantly, pain exploded from my knuckles as they hit the metal of his shin-guard, but enough of the blow landed on his actual leg that it clearly buckled and he fell to one knee before me. Our eyes met for a moment before I suddenly threw my shoulder forward into his chest.  


We both tumbled to the ground, but I quickly attempted to roll off him, only to feel his hands wrap around my left arm, holding me firmly in place. I thrashed against his grip, trying to free myself, but to no avail. Suddenly, my left leg drew back, bending slightly, before driving forward into his groin, all seemingly of its own volition.  


Helis let out a groan as his grip on my arm slackened and I finally managed to rip it loose, immediately sending myself rolling across the stone floor to my right. As I popped back to a kneeling position, I looked back toward Helis to find him just beginning to rise from the ground, himself.  


I had no idea where that came from, but I’d have to remember it, maybe.  


A loud growl of anger from Helis brought my attention back to the moment as he suddenly ripped one of the large pikes from a fallen Carja soldier, easily snapping the wooden handle in half over his knee.  


“Why do you continue to fight?” he spat. “The end is inevitable.”  


I simply glared back at him, my jaw set as he tossed the useless half of the broken wooden staff aside, brandishing the other almost like a sword. A moment later, however, he charged toward me, raising the weapon above his head. I quickly dove to my right, rolling across the ground before popping to my feet and racing toward the bottom of a set of steps leading up to another, similar platform above us. I leapt up them two at a time until I came to a stop at the top, panting and placing a hand to my left side.  


I couldn’t remember ever feeling this weak during a fight.  


“ _It’s not weakness it’s—_ ”  


If it ended with me dead, it was a weakness.  


Period.  


I glanced back toward Helis to see him charging up the steps after me, but seemingly unable to move quite as nimbly. Just as he reached the last few between us, a loud rumble shook the entire structure and we both staggered to the side. I glanced around quickly to make sure that no Corruptors were poised to leap on top of me, or anything of the sort, but no immediate threats made themselves known. A moment later, however, the other staircase running parallel to the one Helis currently stood on began to tilt as the outer wall of the Temple began to crumble and fall away.  


Moments later, the rest of the wall fell away, allowing the stairs to fall into the empty pit that had opened beneath them, effectively blocking any escape route I had in mind.  


“Dammit…”  


As my attention turned back to Helis, I found him now within only feet, a grin on his features.  


“Where will you run now, girl?”  


“Running’s done,” I spat, ripping my spear from my back and holding it tightly in both hands.  


“I will commend you on striving for a warrior’s death,” he continued. “In the end, it will matter little, however, much like that man who tried to save you on the mountaintop.”  


My fingers tightened even further around my weapon as a war cry tore itself from my throat. Before I could stop myself, I had begun to charge forward, closing the gap between Helis and myself. As my spear swung down toward him, he easily parried it with his pike remnant, forcing the tip of my blade into the stone ground before releasing his own weapon with one hand to deliver a powerful punch to the side of my head.  


Bright spots exploded before my eyes as I staggered back and fell to my rear, pain exploding up my back from the impact. My breathing was coming in ragged gasps as I focused on making sure I didn’t pass out, but that was an incredible struggle, on its own. The edges of my vision kept threatening to dim, but each time they tried, I forced the darkness back with my own force of will.  


“Can you feel it, girl?” Helis panted, looming over me. “The end of your purpose, the end of your fight?”  


“My… fight…” I panted, forcing myself to focus until the multiple images of Helis condensed into one, “has lasted a thousand years… and some fuck like you isn’t going to stop it.”  


That seemed to cause him to hesitate a moment, but it was all I needed. My hands gripped tightly around my spear, before I swung it above me, letting out a cry of exertion as I did. Almost immediately, I felt something warm spray across me, and I quickly realized what it was as I turned my gaze back to Helis’s form. A red line had appeared across his stomach, the lower portion steadily growing thicker until the red stain had spread down to his waist.  


Helis gingerly touched at his wound before looking down at me, an incredulous expression on his face. Before he could do anything else, I quickly drove my heel into the inside of his knee, sending him crashing to the ground. By what felt like the next blink, I was standing over him, my spear held at the ready before me, the blade hovering only a foot or so from his chest.  


“Im—Impossible!” Helis gasped, looking up at me from his position on the ground. “I am chosen… this was not meant to be!”  


“Chosen?”  


I slowly sank to one knee beside him, gently placing the blade to his chest and prompting him to glance down at it for a moment before looking back up at me.  


“HADES chose you because you were weak-willed… it saw how it could exploit you, and you gave into it without thinking… like all of the weakest of mind do.”  


With that, I suddenly leaned my weight into the weapon, the blade finally piercing the skin in the center of his chest, sinking quickly between his ribs with a motion that felt all too natural and smooth.  


“You were so focused on your own bloodlust that you were too stupid to realize you were being used.”  


I continued to lean my weight into the weapon as Helis’s mouth opened in a silent scream, only a hoarse whimper escaping it.  


“History forgets men like you,” I continued, my voice barely above a whisper, but no less forceful than if I were screaming, “but then again… time forgets us all… so rejoice in that. No one will remember your failure in a thousand years.”  


Helis’s wide eyes met mine as I shifted my grip on my spear, my jaw tightening before I took a deep breath in through my nose.  


“Look into my eyes… I want you to remember them. The ones you couldn’t kill. The ones you so wished you could. The ones who drove a blade through your heart, and brought your miserable existence to an end.”  


I began to lean more of my weight on the spear as his arms feebly reached toward it to stop the weapon, only to be replaced by the image of a man with spiky, blonde hair a moment later, his white jacket slowly being stained with red. It didn’t matter who was at the end of the spear, though, either would do.  


“Turn your face to the sun… and burn in hell.”  


With that, I suddenly brought all of my body weight down on the spear, driving the weapon through his chest until I felt it come to a short stop on the ground beneath him. As the blade came to a halt, I quickly twisted it, the sharp head of the spear easily carving through the chest cavity with a sickening crunch. Helis let out one final gasp before his eyes rolled back into his head and his entire body went limp.  


With that, I leaned back on my heels, staring blankly down at the hulking form on the ground before me. He may not have worn the white-and-gray clothing or the blonde hairstyle that I had seen in that split second, but it was good enough.  
I stared down at my hands resting on my knees for a moment, taking in the spray of red liquid that had already begun to dry across them, before clenching them into fists around the material of my skirt.  


“One down…”  


I rose to one knee, gripping the shaft of my spear tightly before yanking it free of Helis’s chest with a wet, sucking sound, twirling the weapon in my fingers slightly before slinging it behind me and holstering in its usual spot against my back.  


“One to go.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, snap.
> 
> I'll see y'all next week.
> 
> Get ready.


	29. A Brand New Doomsday

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, here we are, the big climax.
> 
> I had a very long debate about how to split up the remaining portions of this story, and what eventually won out is this.
> 
> There is one more chapter, coming next week. 30 seems like a nice, even number.
> 
> I will tell you, though: pay special attention to the notes at the end of this chapter/the beginning of the next one.
> 
> One last thing before we get on with this mammoth of a chapter, though: I want to sincerely thank all of you who have followed along and read this, whether that was from Duality, or from the start of Binary, or you started somewhere along the way and ended up here, now. I never expected anyone to pay attention to my first story, let alone continue to see readership and responses into its sequel.
> 
> All I'll say for now is that this ride is far from over, and I hope to see at least some of you, still, into the future.
> 
> Anyway, that's enough stalling.
> 
> Enjoy the big showdown you've all been waiting for.

With that, I glanced toward the massive opening in the wall that had been left by the collapse a few moments ago, only to find what looked like an army of machines tearing across the open ground toward the mesa. Muttering a curse under my breath, I stepped over the body before me and hurried back down the steps toward the lower platform, once again. At the far side of the space stood a door, partially barricaded by debris. I quickly shoved it aside before pushing on the door, itself. At first, it didn’t budge, so I tried again, but still to no avail. Finally, I let out a growl of frustration and stepped back a yard or two before drawing my sling, placing a bomb in its holder.  


“Here goes nothing…”  


A moment later, the small bomb slammed into the wooden barricade, the resulting explosion sending a plume of black smoke into the air and prompting me to recoil slightly, raising my arms to partially protect my face, but no large, damaging chunks of wood pelted me. A moment later, I glanced back toward the door to find that in its place now stood an open doorway, no sign of a wooden door blocking it.  


“Well, what did you expect?”  


With a smirk, I holstered the sling before charging through the smoking doorway and out onto the small balcony beyond. Immediately, my eyes focused on the yellow rope overhead, tracing along its length until I found the end at a stone battlement set into the hillside ahead of me.  


“Of course, here we go again…”  


With a heavy sigh, I removed the sling from belt, once again, before taking a deep breath and rushing forward, using the edge of the balcony as a launching pad to leap into the air. A moment later, the sling had wrapped over the top of the rope and I brought my feet up instinctually, even though there were no obvious obstacles below me. The rush of sliding along the rope brought a grin to my face, distracting me for a moment before I blinked and realized that the upcoming platform was drawing incredibly close.  


A moment later, I released my hold on the sling, allowing myself to fall from the zipline. As my feet touched the hard ground, my knees folded and I ducked into a roll. When I popped back to my feet, I found myself face to face with two Carja guards who were staring at me incredulously.  


“What?”  


They shook their heads quickly before nodding down the hillside.  


“They approach, ma’am.”  


I glanced in the direction of their gesture to find the line of machines I had seen from the Temple a moment ago drawing dangerously close to a wooden bridge over the shallow stream that led into the lower village of Meridian.  


This had to be the Western Gate.  


“How can I help?”  


“Do you know how to wield one of these?” one of the guards asked, hefting the large, machine-like weapon before him.  


I shook my head and his partner quickly pointed to the platform below me.  


“Talk to her. She practically built them.”  


My gaze followed his gesture to find a figure standing beside another Carja soldier wielding a similar weapon to those before me. This other figure, however, was not dressed in the ornate armor of the man beside them, but instead an outfit more fitting of someone working before a weapons forge for most of the day. I nodded to the two Carja beside me before quickly hopping over the stone battlements and scurrying down the incline toward the balcony below me, finally hopping over its short wall just as the mysterious figure turned to face me.  


As soon as we locked eyes, her eyebrows raised.  


Clearly, I was not what she was expecting, either.  


“Fire and spit, no one told me a flame from the forge would be joining us.”  


I gave her an odd look and the dark-haired woman in the heavy apron gave me a smirk in return.  


“And who might you be, flame-hair?”  


“Aloy.”  


“So you’re this ‘anointed one’ the Nora keep yammering on about,” she said, nodding, eyeing my up and down once again as her grin only deepened. “Have to say, you’re not what I was expecting.”  


“Oh?”  


“My experience with Nora warriors didn’t lead me to believe you’d be so… _fit_.”  


My lips pulled into a thin line as the other woman smirked.  


“I take it you’re Oseram?” I shot back.  


“How’d you guess?”  


“You all flirt at the worst times.”  


The woman’s head tilted back as she let out a hearty laugh, only for it to be cut short by a curse as the Carja soldier beside her suddenly fell backward, seemingly toppled by his own weapon.  


“Fire and spit…!” the mysterious woman muttered, shaking her head before turning to me. “Do you think you could use this thing better?”  


“Maybe, if you show me how.”  


The dark-haired woman wiggled her eyebrows at me as her smirk returned.  


“My pleasure.”  


I gave her an admonishing look, but she only laughed before ripping the heavy weapon from the struggling Carja’s hands.  


“Here, hold it to your side, you know, if you ever want to use those hips for fun or utility, again.”  


My look did not fade, which only seemed to amuse her further, yet I took the weapon from her and held it alongside me, as she had described.  


“Now, press this button here…” she jabbed one near my right hand, which prompted the rear of the weapon to open and suck in several of the glowing, orange orbs as I had seen at the top of the Temple, earlier, “and then when it’s loaded and you’re ready to fire, let it go. Just make sure you point it toward the enemy.”  


“Like this?”  


I aimed the open barrel of the gun over the battlements before me and pushed her fingers off the button. Immediately, the bombs held within the weapon shot from the front, arcing through the air before slamming into several of the corrupted Longlegs who were rushing along the dirt path toward the bridge to the Western gate; all of them quickly fell to the ground in sputtering, sparking heaps as I glanced toward the woman beside me to see her nodding in approval.  


“Yeah, flame-hair, just like that.”  


“What’s your name?” I asked, shifting my hold on the large gun, slightly.  


The dark-haired woman glanced over at me, her grin spreading even wider.  


“Petra. Petra Forewoman.”  


“Well, Petra… this might be my new favorite toy.”  


Her eyebrows raised, once again, as she placed her hands on her hips.  


“You have no idea how long I’ve waited for a woman to say that to me.”  


I flashed her a smirk of my own before jabbing the button she had pressed moments ago, myself. Immediately, more of the small, orange bombs flew into the weapon as I felt it buzzing with energy, the tips of my hair standing on end. My aim fell on two Corruptors that were quickly attempting to cross the small stream at the base of the hill. Between mine and one of the other gunners’ shots, the machines quickly fell, their red “eyes” quickly fading as they lay still.  


Several more volleys of bombs later, I was finally starting to feel like I had truly gotten the hang of the weapon when a shout from behind me caused me to pause.  


“Deathbringers! Lots of ‘em!”  


My gaze followed the dirt path that led away from the small bridge before us and into the heavy forestation in the distance. As my eyes locked onto the shapes appearing from within the trees, my stomach fell and I was forced to grip the weapon in my hands even tighter as my palms grew slick. Whoever had called out hadn’t been lying; at least ten or so Deathbringers were beginning to make their way toward us, the doors on their missile pods sliding open to reveal the small, dark holes beneath that told of the destruction to come.  


“Concentrate fire on them!” I barked, turning my weapon and aiming high into the air, hoping to compensate for the arc that the bombs seemed to travel in when fired.  


As soon as I released my volley, several more sailed over my head. My eyes traced the orange streaks that marked the individual munitions’ paths through the air, but as they began to near the ground in the distance, a frown tugged at my lips. Many of the bombs landed far short of their targets, kicking up harmless fountains of dirt and grass, but doing no damage to anything else.  


The second volley from all gunners was more successful, with the majority hitting their marks. One or two of the massive machines staggered and fell to the ground, but most continued on their march toward the city gate. A few moments later, the telltale smoke trails of the Deathbringers’ missiles began to cut through the air, weaving their way toward us.  


“Incoming!”  


I quickly ducked behind the short wall of the platform I stood on, Petra also taking cover beside me. We could only watch as the missiles flew overhead and slammed into the stone wall the gate was set into, the structure beginning to crack slightly.  


“It’s not going to take another hit like that!” Petra shouted over the sound of the Carja guards firing more volleys of bombs toward the Deathbringers.  


“Let’s not give them a chance to do it again!”  


She shot me a smirk, clasping her heavy hand on my shoulder.  


“I like your spirit, little spark.”  


“What’s up with everyone calling me ‘little?’” I grumbled under my breath as I scrambled to my feet, grabbing the large gun from the ground once I was standing.  


As I joined the volleys of bombs that sailed toward the Deathbringers, I noted how at least half of them seemed to have fallen, already, and part of me began to feel like we actually stood a chance, after all.  


Of course, there had to be more behind them, but for now… small victories.  


Just then, as I jabbed the button to reload my gun, a terrible grinding sound came from it and I jumped in surprise. Petra swore loudly and quickly knelt beside me, poking and prodding at several pieces of the weapon.  


“It’s jammed,” she growled. “Put it down and go grab me some kind of long, narrow tool from that kit up there!”  


She gestured to the gate at the top of the hill, and my eyes quickly located a large, wooden crate situated just outside it. I nodded and carefully placed the gun on the ground beside the dark-haired woman before spinning on my heel and racing toward the gate. As I reached it, I skidded to a halt before the open crate, peering inside. Just as I hoped, a pile of tools and pieces of machinery lay within, and I quickly rooted through them until I found some kind of long, narrow tool with a wooden handle at one end.  


As I turned to bring it back to Petra, however, my eyes widened at the sight of another cloud of missiles quickly bearing down on me. A loud curse escaped my lips just before the enemy’s volley slammed into the stone structure above me, prompting me to duck my head, raising my arms over it for some sense of protection, as well. Cracking and groaning sounded from above me and I quickly spared a glance up from my huddled position just in time to see the upper part of the gate begin to give way, the large stone blocks that made up the enormous arch beginning to crumble and fall to the ground.  


“Oh, fuck me!”  


I turned to dive away from the falling gate, intending to aim in the direction of the guns and soldiers already stationed outside it, but just as I did, another missile from one of the Deathbringers slammed into the ground before me. The shockwave instantly threw me into the air, sending me flying backward toward the collapsing structure. As I landed firmly on my back, immeasurable pain exploded throughout my torso and a hoarse scream quickly forced its way out of me. My vision was blurred from the hot tears that had instantly sprung to my eyes, but I could still just make out enough to know that I was in an incredibly bad position, so I quickly tried to get to my feet, but the strength in my arms and legs seemed to have been halved from the impact.  


Instead, I suddenly found myself throwing my weight to my right, sending me rolling across the ground. Each bump and impact sent waves of pain rolling through me, but after a few moments, I finally came to a stop against something hard. My vision went black for a moment or two before slowly returning, although all I could see, at first, was the brown expanse of the dirt beneath me.  


With a monumental amount of effort, I managed to lift my head, only to immediately freeze in place at the sight that greeted me.  


An enormous Deathbringer was marching straight through what remained of the Western Gate, but what drew my attention even more than the hulking killing machine was what it was towing behind it. A large, metal orb was attached with several metal chains, tendrils of red and black swirling about it. I didn’t have to scan it with my Focus or hear its voice to confirm what it was, though.  


HADES.  


“Can’t… can’t let it…”  


A moment later, however, my vision dipped to black, once again, and I vaguely felt my head fall forward against the ground before I slipped away into the void of unconsciousness.  


I lost track of how long I was left suspended in total, dark silence before the first rumblings of sound began to build in the distance. They not only grew louder by the second, but they also began to spread around me, until I found myself suddenly engulfed in the roaring, rushing sound that appeared to be wind, at first, but I quickly began to suspect that it was something else as my eyes began to crack open and revealed a vague, orange glow.  


I tried to force them open faster, but even when I had succeeded, the scene before didn’t clear, but remained incredibly blurry and out of focus.  


“Aloy!”  


Several rapid blinks later began to reveal that one of the shapes before me was not actually a large chunk of debris, as I had first thought, but a person. More specifically, the shape revealed itself to be a face hovering over mine, a look of concern etched deeply into its features.  


“Aloy!”  


“Teb…?”  


“By All Mother…” he sighed, shaking his head, “you survived!”  


I began to brace my hands under me, pushing myself off the ground only to fall back down as excruciating pain shot through my torso. A moment later, a pair of hands gently wrapped around my right arm and began to tug at it, helping me lift myself to a kneeling position as I was apparently incapable of doing so entirely by myself.  


“I thought you were killed,” Teb continued, leaving one hand on my shoulder as he crouched beside me. “When the gate fell…”  


“Almost, but… not quite,” I managed, groaning. “What about the others? Are they…?”  


“We’re not dead, Aloy… not all of us.”  


I looked past Teb to see a bright grin set into the middle of a blackened, dirty face. The bandana that had previously held Petra’s hair in place seemed to be long gone, and I noticed several large gashes in her sleeve and the side of her shirt.  


“Some wounded, but alive… mostly…” Teb finished, glancing back at her before turning to me. “You two seem to know each other.”  


“Only for a few minutes,” I laughed, shaking my head.  


“Still, it’d be a shame to never see that head of fire rise from the ground, again,” Petra added, walking gingerly closer to Teb and me.  


As she spoke, however, my gaze drifted past Teb’s shoulder to the short hill leading down to what had once been the farming village beneath Meridian. Immediately, my eyes focused on the still forms of several Carja soldiers, the feathers from their helmets blowing in the breeze, slightly. Teb followed my gaze before sighing, hanging his head.  


“I did say mostly…”  


“I know,” I said quickly, turning back to him. “I know…”  


“The machines blasted right through,” Petra continued, “and then kept going.”  


I began to struggle to my feet and, as before, Teb was there to help support me by providing something for me to hold onto while pulling myself up from the ground. Once I was finally on my feet, I stood unsteadily for several seconds before I managed to regain my balance.  


“Where are they now?” I finally managed, rotating my arms slightly against the stiffness that had settled into my shoulders.  


“They marched on the Spire, dragging that—thing—with them,” Petra chimed in.  


My jaw clenched tightly as I turned back to Teb, placing one hand on his shoulder and gripping it firmly.  


“Take care of the others… and yourself, Teb. I’ve… got to go.”  


“Aloy, your wounds…”  


“Fuck. Them,” I spat, my grip on his shoulder tightening enough that he winced and I quickly released it, letting my arm fall by my side as I turned to Petra.  


“You still able to fight?”  


“I lost my big guns, but I can handle myself,” she replied, pulling a sling from her belt and holding it before her.  


“Can you run?”  


She raised one eyebrow as she placed her hands on her hips, eying me up and down.  


“Can you?”  


I let out a short, dry laugh.  


“I’ve had worse.”  


She continue to stare back at me for several moments before shaking her head.  


“I’d hate to see worse.”  


With that, I nodded down the short hill and we set off toward the remnants of the village ahead.  


“The world doesn’t have time for me to stop now, anyway.”  


Teb looked like he wanted to say something else, as I turned back to him, but he finally just nodded and stepped back, giving me space to pass as I began to stiffly move along the path of destruction carved through the buildings and fields nearby, Petra falling in step beside me shortly after.  


Walls of fire and smoke surrounded us as we moved at a light jog, one of my hands raised before me in a feeble attempt to block the blowing dust and cinders from getting in my eyes, but it did little to help and they water incessantly, anyway. After only a short ways through the former village, I had to resort to placing my hand over my mouth and nose, using it to try to slow the amount of smoke I was breathing in, and hopefully contain the coughing fits that had begun in earnest, now.  


Screams of terror, anguish, and sadness arose from around me as I caught sight of villagers leading family members away from the flames. Some could still walk, others were more or less being dragged, but still other, much stiller, forms were being carried by whoever was most able to do so. As I clambered over the broken, blackened wood and twisted metal that once been one of the great elevators of Meridian, I caught sight of a young child crouching next to one of the segments of the large, wooden beams. At first, I wondered why he hadn’t fled, like the others, or taken up a better hiding spot, but as I moved a few steps forward, I found the reason why.  


Bile rose in my throat as I took in the image of a woman, not much older than myself, crushed by said wooden beam, the heavy object laying across the center of her torso, while one arm extended from underneath, the child still grasping her hand desperately.  


I forced myself to look away, but it did little to help, and I suddenly found my stomach clenching tightly as I pitched forward. There wasn’t much in my stomach to vomit up, but I continued to retch for several moments before it finally stopped, and I ran the back of one hand over my lips. A hand appeared on my back, clapping it supportively, although all it did mainly was cause me to shrink away from it, grimacing and groaning in pain.  


“Sorry, didn’t realize you hurt your back,” Petra said sheepishly.  


“While ago,” I panted, eventually managing to stand up straight, once again. “Can’t stop… can’t stop moving…”  


I grit my teeth as I forced myself onward, hopping over the small, wet puddle before me before breaking into a jog, once again, not checking to see if Petra was following.  


Despite the death and destruction we had witnessed so far, we began to find more signs of life as we approached the outer edge of the village. Carja soldiers and some members of the Vanguard, it seemed, continued to fight off corrupted Longlegs and Scrappers that still lingered about the burning husks of the buildings.  


As we went to slip by one fight in particular, however, I paused. One of the figures engaged in a fight with a wounded Longleg looked incredibly familiar, but I couldn’t place why. A few moments later, I realized that he was simply missing his usual, ornate headdress, the lack of a splash of red feathers somehow not hindering my ability to pick him out amidst the scene of chaos before me.  


“I guess he did say if there was a fight…”  


Just as I turned to continue after Petra, who had finally come to a stop a few yards ahead, the group of combatants managed to bring down the Longleg in a sputtering shower of sparks, eliciting cheers from the group. Almost immediately, the figure I had noticed before seemed to lock eyes with me, and a delighted look came over his face. Before I knew it, he had bounded across the open battleground before skidding to a stop before me.  


“Ah, there she is,” he said. “I was beginning to worry that I would miss you before the fight was over.”  


“Hello to you, too, Nil.”  


He flashed a devilish smirk before glancing around.  


“I feel I’ve helped finish most of the remaining machines off, for now. I didn’t realize I should have saved some for you.”  


“I don’t have time for these machines,” I replied, shaking my head. “I have a bigger target.”  


“Bigger? More… alive?”  


“Yes and no.”  


“Well, you have me intrigued. Will it be difficult to kill?”  


“I’d say so.”  


“Then say no more.”  


With that, he stepped aside gesturing ahead of me.  


“Lead the way, Aloy.”  


I gave him an apprehensive look, but he simply continued to flash his smirk at me before I sighed and slipped past him, not checking to see if he was following. As I reached Petra, she eyed the man inevitably following behind me.  


“Old friend?”  


“That might be using one too many letters.”  


Her eyebrows raised but she quickly shook her head.  


“I won’t ask.”  


With a smirk, I led the small group toward a narrow body of water that ran around the outer edge of the village. As we approached, I realized that there was no bridge or other means of crossing, so I took a deep breath before trudging into it. The water proved to not be terribly deep, but it did come up to my waist at its highest point. As soon as I was standing on the far side, I quickly checked the weapons on my back, primarily feeling for the small, metal cylinder attached to the end of Sylens’ lance.  


When I didn’t immediately receive an electronic shock, I figured it was good enough and spared a glance back toward the water I had just left. Nil was marching up the short, dirt bank toward me, shaking his legs to either side with each step, meanwhile Petra was frowning and attempting to wring out the hem of her shirt and her leather apron.  


“Shame to have to wash away the trophies of the fight so quickly.”  


I turned back to Nil and gave him an odd look as he shot me the same smirk as earlier.  


“I see you still wear yours, though.”  


My confusion only deepened as he finally let out a low chuckle, coming to a stop beside me.  


“Red truly is your color.”  


Finally, I gave in to the curiosity and raised one hand to my face. Immediately, I felt how sticky my skin was to the touch, but when I pulled my fingers away, I found that it wasn’t because of sweat. Half-dried, red liquid now adorned my fingertips, and I quickly wiped them on the skirt of my armor.  


“It seems you have done your fair share of fighting, already.”  


“You should understand when the situation calls for it,” I shot back.  


“I did not blame you, nor insinuate that you have strayed from your moral path.”  


“I… let’s just go.”  


I glanced toward Petra to see her regarding the two of us with her lips pulled into a thin line.  


Nil probably had that effect on most people, I’d guess.  


He let out another low chuckle, bringing my attention back to him for a moment before I spun on my heel, taking off at a jog toward the distant path that led to the Alight. As we closed in on its entrance, a low boom sounded, reverberating off every surface around me and seemingly shaking the very ground, itself.  


“We draw near, I assume?”  


I quickly tilted my head back, staring up toward the protruding, and angular construction at the very edge of the Alight. Immediately, I tapped the side of my Focus, bringing up the interface and allowing me to see the pulsating, red lines that now emitted from the metal structure.  


“The signal…”  


“What was that?”  


“We’re running out of time.”  


Before either of them could say anything else, I took off at a full run toward the entrance to the winding trail up the nearby mesa. My pace quickly began to slow as the path’s incline increased, proving much more difficult to traverse at speed than I had first thought. Once I had managed to reach the halfway point, however, I came to a stop, panting heavily as I gingerly placed one hand on my left side.  


Everything hurt. Every inch. It was more excruciating than anything I’d felt in my life.  


Didn’t matter.  


Pain meant I wasn’t dead, yet.  


Again?  


With a singular, heavy sigh, I turned my attention back to the path before me… or more accurately, what remained of it. A rather wide, gaping chasm now stood where a stone bridge once had, the only signs of the previous structure the series of narrow columns that stuck into the air like skeletal fingers, the other ends of them burrowed into the rock face below to help hold the weight of the stone up.  


So much for that, now.  


Unfortunately, there didn’t seem to be another way across now, though.  


Just before I could take the first step toward the gap, Nil brushed past me, easily hopping from the edge of the former bridge where I stood to the first pole. Within moments, he had hopped across all of them and stood on the far side, glancing back toward me with a smirk.  


“Come now, you said we don’t have much time.”  


I spared a glance back at Petra to see her shaking her head.  


“I don’t know if I can follow, little spark.”  


I nodded curtly, placing one hand on her shoulder.  


“They could use your expertise back at the village.”  


“Aye, they really could,” she agreed, nodding, as she placed a hand on my shoulder, as well. “Come find me when you’re all done up there, okay?”  


I nodded, a small smile pulling at my lips.  


“I want to hear more about the one the Nora hold nearly as high as their goddess.”  


I rolled my eyes as Petra smirked, giving my shoulder one last squeeze before gently pushing the back of my shoulder toward the path.  


“Go, now, girl.”  


With one last deep breath, I braced myself before charging forward, pushing off the edge of the former bridge, as Nil had done moments ago. My feet instinctually seemed to find the tops of the stone-and-wood columns, pushing off each one almost as soon as they touched. Moments later, I jogged to a stop on the far side of the former bridge, glancing over at Nil as he gave me an impressed nod.  


“Not bad for a mortally wounded warrior.”  


I rolled my eyes at him.  


“I’m not dying, Nil.”  


“Well, aren’t we all?”  


“Not the time,” I shot back, raising a stern finger toward him before glancing back toward the far side of the chasm I had just traversed.  


Petra let out a loud whistle before laughing and waving to us. I returned the wave before setting off farther up the trail, turning back to Nil as I did.  


“Shall we?”  


The two of us hurried up the trail as quickly as we could, taking each narrow twist and turn until we suddenly found ourselves confronted with what appeared to be a large pile of stone rubble where I vaguely remembered there being a set of stairs, once. Amidst the rubble, however, stood three figures, two of them seemingly arguing with each other.  


At the sound of our approaching footsteps, they glanced at us before the one on the left pulled a double take and hit the other on the shoulder.  


“Fire and spit, look who it is! Aloy! It’s Aloy!”  


Varl turned to follow Erend’s gaze as I slowed to a walk a few yards away, his eyes widening slightly when he saw me. Sona simply raised one eyebrow as she eyed me up and down. I had to be quite the sight, to be honest, though.  


“You look as if you’ve dragged yourself through hell” Erend laughed, approaching and placing a hand on my shoulder.  


I noticed how Varl seemed to stiffen at the gesture, but chose to ignore him as I turned back to the Vanguard captain.  


“It feels like it,” I replied, nodding. “What happened to the rest of your men?”  


Erend’s smile fell as he clenched his jaw.  


“Dead.”  


My eyes widened slightly as I turned to Varl and Sona, as well.  


“And the Nora?”  


“Few survived, those who did helped the most wounded back down the trail to seek help,” she said.  


“So… it’s just the three of you, now?”  


“Well, it was.”  


Erend gave a small smile toward me before turning an apprehensive gaze to Nil.  


“Who’s the fifth?”  


“You can call me Nil,” he replied.  


“Okay… I’m assuming if you’re here with Aloy, you’re here to fight.”  


“I would have it no other way. She has promised me the greatest of fights, and from the sounds of it… I will not be disappointed.”  


Erend gave me an odd look and I smiled sheepishly.  


“He’s a good fighter…”  


“Just as long as he isn’t fighting me…”  


“I have no quarrels with you,” Nil interjected. “Assuming none arise, we will fight together.”  


“Well, then let’s try to keep it that way, huh?” I said quickly, stepping between them. “Erend—Varl—Sona—is HADES up there?”  


“If HADES is that forsaken metal ball, then yes,” Varl answered. “It brought a machine bigger than any I’ve ever seen with it.”  


“I know, a Deathbringer.”  


“It was like none that attacked the Sacred Lands.”  


“It’s special… but it still needs to die.”  


The three men and the war chief nodded resolutely.  


“Then let’s go kill it.”  


With that, Varl led the way toward the pile of rubble, scrambling up it first while I followed quickly behind, the last two presumably following me. As we crested the top of the pile and hopped down the short drop onto the Alight, we quickly rushed forward, crouching behind a low, stone wall that formed a ring around the center of the mesa. Inside the ring stood the motionless Deathbringer, seemingly powered down, for the time being.  


“Let me try to get close,” I whispered to Varl, and he nodded.  


I began to slink along the side of the wall, taking care not to cause too much noise from the various metal items affixed to my person. Finally, when I was within only ten yards or so from the Spire, I spotted my target, the metal orb seething with black and red tendrils. The red coloring seemed to move up the Spire, itself, causing it to glow slightly where HADES touched it.  


I inhaled deeply through my nose, bracing myself for the last dash across the open ground toward it, when the familiar, blood-chilling voice boomed across the Alight.  


“Arrival of Entity has been… anticipated.”  


The orb began to glow even more brightly, and I found myself quickly grabbing Sylens’ lance from behind me, holding it ready at my side.  


“Entity will not halt… transmission.”  


Suddenly, one of the tendrils shot out from the orb, flying across the open ground toward me. Just as I expected it to slam into my chest, my Focus came to life around me, the web of lines and patterns around me breaking the flying projectile’s path, like a shield. The tendril quickly broke apart and began to swirl about the projected orb of the Focus, as if it were searching for any weakness to allow it inside.  


“To the contrary, calculations are… precise. Presence of Entity… has been… accounted for.”  


I rose to my feet, stepping out from behind the short, stone wall as I gripped the lance at my side even more tightly. A moment later, however, the seething, red lines whirling about me disappeared as HADES seemingly gave up on attacking me directly. Instead, another red tendril shot from the orb across the open ground of the Alight. This time, it slammed into the Deathbringer in the center of the open ground, the lights that served as its “eyes” immediately springing to life as the guns on its body began to swivel and its legs began to lift it off the ground.  


“I’m sorry, Lis.”  


My head immediately whirled back toward the orb, only to find that the red lines surrounding it had coalesced into a single, humanoid shape, which quickly began to take on familiar features. A few seconds later, the image of Travis Tate was smirking at me, his arms raised to either side of him as he shrugged.  


“Guess you’re gonna have to die… again.”  


My jaw clenched as I glanced back toward the hulking Deathbringer to see it finally beginning to move, lumbering toward me as its guns began to focus in my direction.  


“We’ll see about that…”  


I quickly slid the lance behind me as I ducked into cover just before the guns on either side of the Deathbringer came to life, the sound of them thundering off the stone walls of the near-ancient structures that lined the Alight. Their ammunition tore up the ground before me and shook the tall, stone column I had taken cover behind, but thankfully none made contact. Shouting in the distance drew my attention as the guns came to a stop. I spared a glance to my right, rising above the level of the short wall to see Erend waving his arms in the air at the far side of the circle.  


“Hey, ugly!”  


A moment later, the guns began to fire, once again, but this time they fired toward Erend, who quickly dove behind the stone wall for protection. A moment later, however, two flaming arrows slammed into the exposed, glowing coils that protruded from the top of the Deathbringer’s body. The machine stopped firing as it began to spasm slightly, the heat apparently enough to mess with its ability to function.  


While it was temporarily distracted, I turned to slip toward HADES, only to find a Scrapper standing between myself and the orb, its body writhing with the tendrils of Corruption.  


“Oh, come on…”  


With a mechanical roar, the machine charged at me, quickly leaping into the air. I dodged to the right, just barely avoiding both its claws and its powerful, metal jaws. As soon as I rolled back to my feet, I yanked the lance free from its spot against my back and spun it around in my hand. Before I could totally comprehend what was happening, I jabbed the blade forward, the tip piercing the power unit on the back of the Scrapper. Sparks flew into the air as the machine let out a howl, staggering slightly. Before it could recover, I quickly removed the lance from the power unit before spinning it around and slicing across the Scrapper’s scanning unit atop its body.  


The sharpened blade made easy work of the metal component, cutting it free as if it were barely even there. The machine began to flail about frantically, but I quickly brought it to an end as I drove the tip of the lance through the top of its head, the red lights of its eyes quickly fading before its body went limp and it fell to the ground with a heavy thud. As I removed my weapon from the head of the fallen machine, I glanced up to find the Deathbringer still seemingly locked in combat with the other three on the opposite side of the Alight.  


As my gaze fell on Sona, we locked eyes and she nodded toward the Spire, mouthing “go!”  


I nodded and turned to race toward the orb, only to find the strange, red-tinged image of Travis shaking his head.  


“Not so fast.”  


Just then, a Corruptor landed between us and I recoiled, nearly tripping over the fallen Scrapper behind me. The hulking, spindly machine began to move closer, its red eye focusing on me as the drum on the side of its body began to spin. I quickly raced to my left, hopping over the short, stone wall and dropping to the ground on the opposite side. The projectiles from the Corruptor slammed into the stone behind me, sending dust into the air and chipping several large chunks off the top portion, but otherwise it worked as effective cover.  


Moments later, however, the Corruptor leapt over it, landing between myself and the Deathbringer. It was bad enough that I was once again exposed to whatever onslaught the smaller machine was prepared to throw at me, but the motion seemed to draw the Deathbringer’s attention, once again.  


No matter how many fire arrows were fired at it, this time, it turned toward me, its red eyes seemingly glowing even brighter, now. It almost felt like I had somehow angered it… even more than normal.  


“Okay,” I muttered, scrambling to my feet, “let’s see what you fuckers got.”  


Just then, the Corruptor lunged forward, spinning its body as its tail lashed out before it. I could only watch in slow motion as it came down on me, but at the very last second, I dropped to the ground, landing on my hands and knees. I could feel my hair and clothing whipped up by the air from the tail, but no excruciating pain exploded in my chest, nor was I thrown off my feet.  


I glanced up, once again, to find the Corruptor staggering slightly before me, as if it had been thrown off-balance by its attack.  


Seizing the moment, I quickly ripped my sling from my belt and loaded one of the bombs from the pouch on my belt into it, squeezing the small buttons on the sides that armed it. As I loosed the projectile, it began to glow a bright red. As soon as it collided with the body of the machine, it fell backward, hitting the ground with enough force that it shook beneath my feet. A moment later, however, it revealed that it was not dead, yet, and began to claw back to its feet. Before it fully could, however, another projectile sailed through the air before slamming into the machine, sending a shower of sparks and metal components into the air.  


I spared a glance behind me to see Varl standing above the low, stone wall, an empty sling in one hand as a self-satisfied grin tugged at his lips.  


“Thought you could use some help!” he called.  


My vocal chords felt unable to function, so I simply gave him a thumbs-up and he laughed, but quickly dove into cover when the Deathbringer seemed to find him more of a threat than me, once again. Seizing my moment, however, I scrambled to my feet, stashing my sling before grabbing the lance off the ground and charging toward the metal orb at the base of the Spire.  


“Oh, for fuck’s sake, something stop her!” the image of Travis snarled, gesturing wildly, but this time, no more machines appeared before me.  


Instead, I came to a short stop just before the image, matching its glare with a smirk.  


“You should have known it would take more than that to kill me.”  


“Well, can’t say I didn’t try,” the image sighed, shaking its head.  


With that, I stepped through it, the red-tinged Travis Tate dissolving into a cloud of whirling lights as I raised the lance loaded with the Master Override over my head. Now that was I closer to the orb, I noticed that a singular, glass circle was set into its surface, so I aimed the tip of the lance toward it before bringing all of my weight down on the weapon.  


The blade slammed into the glass, but didn’t pierce it, although a web of small cracks spread out from the point of impact.  


“System threat—imminent,” the cold voice of HADES said, the change from the drawling tone of Travis a moment ago enough to distract me for a moment before I shook my head, clenching my jaw as I tightened my grip around the wooden shaft of the lance.  


“I’m more than a threat.”  


With that, I pulled the tip of the lance free of the glass, raised it above my head, and swung it toward the vulnerable point on the orb. This time, the blade pierced the protective glass, stabbing into the machine parts beneath it. Almost immediately, my Focus spring to life around me, only for an intense pain nearly equal to the feeling of the Strider landing on me exploded in my arm, quickly travelling up it until it reached my shoulder.  


My muscles froze in place as a scream forced its way out of me, building in my chest before rising past my throat and escaping my lips. As soon as the sound left me, however, my vision dipped to black.  


I was only left in the strange, suspended feeling for a moment or two, however, before I suddenly found myself standing amidst an incredibly large version of the Focus interface, the world beyond the purple lines and numbers a black void dotted with bright pinpricks of light. It was the night sky, but all around me.  


I spun in place, looking around the vast space until my eyes fell on a glowing, towering image of the Spire, bright, red lights swirling about it. My feet tentatively took a few steps toward it before a strange, stilted voice rang about the odd sphere I had found myself in, echoing as if I were in some huge cavern, rather than seemingly floating in the sky.  


“Master Override armed. To activate, state name and rank.”  


Just as it finished speaking, another, towering shape appeared across from the Spire, this one glowing a bright blue. As its form coalesced, my eyes widened slightly and I staggered back a step or two. It was an image of Elisabet, almost exactly like the holographic recordings from Zero Dawn, but completely motionless and towering a good ten or twenty yards over my head, like some kind of enormous statue.  


“What…? Why…?”  


Even as I asked aloud, the answer hit me and my breath caught in my chest.  


The voice had been asking me.  


It wanted my name and rank.  


Because…  


I swallowed heavily, taking a deep breath in through my nose before exhaling slowly through my mouth.  


“Elisabet Sobeck, Alpha Prime.”  


“Master Override activated, purging—”  


“Elisabet Sobeck, Alpha Prime, hold it!”  


I jumped in place at the sudden sound of another voice so close to me, my head whipping about until my gaze settled on a figure that suddenly stood beside me, her eyes fixed on the glowing, red Spire.  


“E-Elisabet…?”  


A version of her, seemingly much more real and as she had appeared in my visions numerous times so far, now stood before me, her hands clenched at her sides. She was still dressed in the same grey and white clothing as I remembered from the Zero Dawn facility, albeit tinged blue on one side and red on the other by the light of the holographic images before us.  


“Master Override paused, awaiting further instruction.”  


“Why did you stop it?” I asked, taking a step closer to the more realistic version of Elisabet.  


“Let’s just… hold on a second,” she said, running one hand through her hair. “This… Master Override… it’s a killswitch.”  


“I know, that’s why we took it.”  


“But…”  


The image stared at the ground to my left for a moment or two before letting out a growl of frustration, running her hands over her face violently before turning to me.  


“We can’t kill it, Aloy.”  


My heart began to pound in my chest as I felt a cold sweat form on my palms.  


“Why not?”  


“Because, GAIA was designed with her subfunctions as a system,” she continued. “We made them all for a reason.”  


My jaw began to clench and before I could stop myself, I found words imbued with venom pouring from my mouth.  


“You designed death on a world-wide scale… _twice_?!”  


As soon as they left my mouth, however, my eyes widened.  


Where had that come from?  


It… it felt…  


The image of Elisabet narrowed her eyes at me.  


“What has that bitch been putting into your head?”  


I remained silent, the force that had pushed the words from my lips moments ago seemingly vanished.  


“I didn’t _design_ Ted’s deathbots,” she spat. “He took something I helped make out of genuine, scientific curiosity, and applied it to his stupid fucking idea.”  


She had begun to take steps toward me, and for some reason I found myself shrinking away, matching her to try to keep the same distance between us.  


“I told him, but he didn’t listen… and look how that turned out,” she seethed. “So… you need to start listening to me… and not that cunt who pretends to be me.”  


Suddenly, whatever had motivated me before seemed to return and I froze in place, planting my feet firmly as my fists clenched at my sides.  


“I can make up my own mind.”  


The image of Elisabet came to a stop, as well, her eyes still locked on mine with a burning intensity that I tried to match with my own.  


“And I know what she showed me was _your_ memory.”  


Elisabet began to shake her head.  


“She’s using it out of context to manipulate you…”  


“Like you telling me what to believe isn’t?”  


At that, her head snapped up, her entire body freezing in place.  


“What are you saying, Aloy?”  


“I’m saying that for someone who doesn’t want other people to look up to her like a god, you’re certainly asking me to take your word as if you were!”  


As soon as the words left my mouth, my eyes widened and my jaw snapped shut. My heart was pounding in my ears as I tried my best not to let my knees or hands start trembling.  


I… had actually just said that… aloud.  


I… I couldn’t have…  


After several long moments of absolute, still silence, the image of Elisabet sighed, hanging her head.  


“You’re right…” she finally said. “I never wanted to be looked up to like that—just like you don’t from the Nora…”  


She slowly began to move closer, her steps weaving and lazy, almost as if she were lost in some kind of daydream.  


“But,” she finally said, her voice suddenly much softer as she was now only a foot or two away from me, “I _am_ Elisabet Sobeck Prime.”  


Confusion creased my brow as Elisabet suddenly lunged toward me. Her hands grasped the sides of my head, holding me in place as instantly my vision began to grow blurry.  


“E-Elisabet…?!”  


“You—weren’t—there… Aloy…” she managed, her voice suddenly sounding much more strained. “You don’t remember… how it felt…”  


Suddenly, an intense, hollow feeling appeared in my chest and an overwhelming wave of sadness rolled over me, bringing tears to the corners of my eyes. Images of destroyed cities, people disintegrating into dust, and huge, open expanses of burnt vegetation and empty rivers flashed before me. Along with them came voices ringing in my ears, each one ranging from panicked to angry to defeated.  


“Lis, tell me this isn’t real!”  


“How… how could this happen?”  


“You’re fucking kidding.”  


“That’s not funny, Lis.”  


“How could you fucking say that?”  


“There has to be something…”  


I tried to twist away from her grip, but she held fast, her gaze boring into me.  


“Can you begin to understand now?”  


Suddenly, I placed my hands in the center of her chest and shoved as hard as I could. The image of Elisabet staggered backward, eyes widening in surprise as she lost her balance and fell to the ground. She stared up at me incredulously as I panted heavily, trying to catch my breath.  


“Elisabet, stop.”  


“You still believe her, don’t you?”  


“I don’t—”  


“Don’t you get it, Aloy?!” she spat, interrupting me as she scrambled to her feet. “That young version of me, who likes exactly like you, isn’t me. She’s you.”  


My mouth hung open for a few moments even as confusion creased my brow, once again. Elisabet seized the moment, however, and continued to talk.  


“She’s your self-doubt, wrapped up in a neat little package that just shows up to antagonize you when you’re feeling the most vulnerable. Remember every time you’ve seen her? What’s been happening?”  


“I—I…”  


I trailed off, trying to think back, as she said.  


Under the rock in the desert… just after the first time I went into All Mother Mountain.  


In the city with Erend and the morning after… when I was injured and feeling incredibly out of place.  


In the mountains near Pitchcliff… when I couldn’t tell if I was along for the ride or controlling my own actions… and when I was looking for Ersa.  


Just before going back up to GAIA Prime… to get the Master Override to try to save the world.  


Last night… right before the battle.  


“She shows up when you’re nervous, scared, or confused,” Elisabet continued. “Aloy… I’m not trying to let HADES go through with its plan… I’m not a monster.”  


“I-I know!” I snapped. “But…”  


“But what?”  


“But then… why stop this?” I managed, gesturing to the towering images of herself and the Spire beside us. “We have the chance to stop the death of every living thing in the world… you have the chance to _actually_ wield the controls, this time.”  


Her gaze softened as she let out a heavy sigh.  


“Aloy… we all have our time…”  


“But yours didn’t have to be right then, just like mine doesn’t have to be right now.”  


Confusion creased her face at that.  


“What do you mean?”  


“If we don’t stop HADES, right now, I die, along with everyone else.”  


“Oh, no, no, no, Aloy… I don’t want to let HADES just ‘get away with’ what it wants… I want to contain it. We need to study it. As much as it pains me to say it… Sylens kind of has a point to what he does.”  


“Please don’t say you agree with him… _at all_.”  


“I kind of do,” she shrugged, “on very limited terms. HADES could help us understand so much. The rogue signal, maybe… what triggered all of GAIA and the subfunctions to fall apart…”  


“Isn’t there a copy of HADES, along with everything else, under Sunfall?”  


Elisabet sighed heavily, rubbing her temples slowly.  


“Yes, but that is HADES in its infancy, more or less. Think of it almost like me and you… this HADES—” she gestured to the image of the Spire beside us, “—remembers everything that has happened that has led to this moment, like me in relation to the past. The one in Zero Dawn, if we activate it, would be like you, in comparison. It would have none of the ‘memories,’ none of the knowledge it’s gained… it would be forced to figure everything out, all over again. It would be exactly as it was a thousand years ago when Travis and his team had just finished building version 1.0.”  


I stared back at her, biting my lower lip as I tried to think through everything she had just said. There was a good point she had made… and anything that could potentially help, in any way, with rebuilding GAIA would be good. But on the other hand… why stop the Master Override just now? Was it really designed to just kill it?  


“So do you understand me, now?”  


“About why we can’t just let the Master Override run?”  


She nodded.  


“I… I mean…”  


“We don’t have much time, Aloy,” she cut in, a slight edge building in her voice, once again. “Do you trust me?”  


Silence fell over us for several long moments before I swallowed thickly, nodding.  


“Good… ready, then?”  


She held one hand out toward me and I slowly took a step forward, reaching toward it. As soon as our fingers made contact, it felt like an electrical current shot through them and up my arm. A gasp escaped my lips at the feeling, but my hand seemed locked in hers. The feeling stopped at my shoulder, however. My gaze focused on Elisabet across from me to find her staring up at the towering images of the Spire and herself.  


For a moment, however, I could have sworn her eyes shone a brilliant blue.  


The next second, however, the world began to grow brighter and brighter until everything had washed out to a brilliant white. As it did however, I heard what seemed to be my own voice ringing in my ears.  


“Elisabet Sobeck, Alpha Prime… begin transfer.”  


A moment later, the world snapped back into existence. Along with it came the pain of electricity coursing across my body, but this quickly passed as I released the staff of the lance jammed into the exposed opening of the orb HADES had used as a home. Small sparks still sprung from where the tip of the blade pierced the glass, but for all intents and purposes, the major bolts of electricity seemed to have subsided.  


With a heavy sigh, I shook my left hand, examining it for signs of burns, but no new injuries or dark lines appeared on my skin.  


“Call that a victory…” I muttered.  


As I glanced back up at the lance, I happened to notice something glowing on the tail end of it. A small ring around the Master Override glowed red, the light pulsating every few seconds. As my hand reached toward my Focus, the glass “eye” on the orb suddenly began to grow a bright blue, a similar light also appearing from a strange band that wrapped around the center of the metal sphere.  


I began to back up slowly as a loud humming began to fill the air. After I had only gone a few steps, however, the orb emitted a bright blast of light that seemed to bear a physical shockwave with it as I was forcefully thrown off my feet. The world seemed to move in slow motion as my arms windmilled to either side of me. My gaze faced the sky, and I happened to notice how it seemed more red than usual, the thought crossing my mind that this was strange.  


It should have been more brown.  


With that, however, I landed on my back, the breath exploding from my lungs as darkness quickly covered most of my vision, only allowing a small circle in the very center to cut through, but it was just enough to catch sight of motion above me. It looked like it could be a face, maybe.  


My vision began to clear, somewhat, to reveal what I thought to be Erend’s face over me, but what caught my attention the most was something just past his shoulder. It seemed to glow with a faint red light, but it seemed to have the shape of a human. Just as I tried to focus on it, the darkness at the edges of my vision began to rush toward the center, once again, and I found myself taking one last, deep breath before my eyes rolled back in my head and I felt the strength leave my limbs.  


The last sound that rang in my ears as I fell into the deep void of unconsciousness was a voice calling out. It sounded like a name… but it felt wrong. It wasn’t mine, was it? No, I’d know… I’d remember…  


But I was so tired… I could worry about it later.  


I had the time, now.  


I had time, once again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Boom, bonus character surprise.
> 
> So yeah, there's going to be some big implications from what just happened.
> 
> I'll see y'all next week.


	30. The Guiding Light

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here it is... the final chapter of _Binary_.
> 
> 30 is a nice, even number after all.
> 
> First off, I want to get this out of the way: as you can probably guess, this is not the end of this story, overall. I wouldn't want to cram everything that I've been hinting at, and some of you have been hoping for, into just one chapter and call it done.
> 
> Oh no.
> 
> There's still a good amount of this ride to go... it just felt like it would fit better in a new volume. So, if you haven't yet, you may want to consider following the series as a whole, or just keep an eye out in the H:ZD main fandom page on here... same Bat-time, same Bat-place.
> 
> So now that that's out of the way, and hopefully I've averted some sense of panic that "wait, you're not _really_ going to end it _there_ , are you?!" may have caused, I want to get to the more sappy stuff.
> 
> I want to give a huge thanks to everyone who's read and followed the _Living Systems_ (as I'm calling it) series so far, both Duality and Binary. Whether you read from the very beginning of Duality and hung on this far, or you picked up somewhere along the way in either... if you're reading this right now, then you have my gratitude.
> 
> If you've ever left a comment on either of the stories thus far, no matter how long or short, just know that it means the world to me that someone had something that they felt compelled to say in reaction to something I wrote.
> 
> I'm bad at coming up with things like this to say... it's either too short or I ramble, so I'm going to call it here for this note, seeing as there's no sense delaying the chapter any further... or maybe you read the whole thing first and then came back up here, in which case I suppose the length doesn't matter.
> 
>  
> 
> **  
> _Anyway..._  
>  **
> 
>  
> 
> Here it is. It's short and sweet... but you'll see why by the end.

I didn’t remember leaving the Alight, nor did I have any dreams, but the next thing I was aware of was a warm light across a stone surface as my eyes fluttered open, once again. Almost immediately, an intense ache seemed to spread throughout my entire body and I let out a low groan, attempting to move in any way to test what was causing the pain.  


Almost immediately, however, a figure appeared over me and I paused for a moment.  


The face looked familiar…  


I felt like I had been in this room, before.  


“I did tell you that if you continued to push yourself, I’d see you back here, didn’t I?”  


The woman hovering over me smirked before turning her gaze to scan over the rest of me.  


“From what I’ve heard of your fight, I’d say it’s a miracle you are still alive.”  


Another groan forced its way out of me as she prodded at my side, prompting her to look back up at my face.  


“When have I ever listened to other people?” I managed through my mostly-clenched teeth.  


The woman sighed, shaking her head.  


“Despite how much you distance yourself from the Nora, you certainly borrow the same stubborn mentality as them.”  


My lips drew into a thin line, but the woman had already begun to turn away. A few moments later, she reappeared, holding a small, wooden cup.  


“Here, this will help with some of the pain.”  


She held it to my lips and I drank it as best I could, letting out a sound of displeasure at the taste, which only seemed to amuse her more.  


“Root extract is no honey, but I think you can live with the taste more than the pain.”  


I let out a sigh, resting my head back on the pillow behind it as the woman disappeared from beside me, once again. My gaze turned to follow her, my head finally rolling to the side to find that we were not alone in the room, as I had first guessed. Another bed was set up opposite mine, a lone figure lying atop it. They appeared to be asleep, however, as they remained entirely still aside from the slow rise and fall of their chest.  


“There is a shortage of space after the battle,” the woman from before said, lifting a small tray off a table in the corner and turning back to me. “You still managed to get lucky: only one roommate. I will be back once I check on some of the nearby rooms. Not everyone was as lucky as you during the fight.”  


I nodded slowly, the motion bringing about a strange sensation as the world seemed to streak before me.  


“It looks like the solution is taking effect,” she continued. “You still should rest, despite how much I know you hate it.”  


My tongue felt thick in my mouth, but I managed to sputter out one last question before it felt as if it were entirely out of my control.  


“H-how long?”  


The woman sighed, pausing by the open doorway.  


“It’s only the day after, Aloy.”  


Confusion creased my face, once again, but the woman had already turned to leave.  


“I will be back shortly.”  


With that, she disappeared from sight, leaving me alone in the still and silent room. The sounds of soft breathing from the person in the other bed seemed to fill the entire space, but quickly I began to lose track of that, as well.  


Each blink swapped out the stone walls and sunlight shining through the window to my left for metallic grey and harsh, unnatural lighting. A strange, synthetic beeping sounded in my ears each time, as well, but nothing in the room should have made that sound. It seemed to be in time with my heartbeat, but…  


The next blink seemed to go by much more slowly, and when my eyelids slid open, once again, I found the room was now much darker than before. The sunlight was gone, replaced by a soft, flickering candlelight from my right. My head slowly turned toward it to find a single, large candle sitting in the middle of a metal plate, all of it placed atop a small, wooden table between my bed and the one across from me.  


As my gaze travelled past the candle, however, I started in surprise. The figure in the other bed was sitting up, now, and was staring over at me with an amused smirk on their features.  


“Good morning to you, too.”  


The figure was a woman with jet black hair that framed her somewhat pale face, although her amber eyes shone brightly in the light from the candle. Several small scrapes and cuts lined her cheekbones and forehead, although I couldn’t immediately place an injury that was serious enough for her to be laid up in a bed.  


“I was beginning to wonder if I’d ever get to meet my roommate,” she continued. “Then again, the healers don’t seem to be considering letting me out of here anytime soon.”  


I cleared my throat as I nodded slowly, attempting to push myself into a seated position, as well, but the pain that shot through my torso as I tried to put my weight on my arms was enough that I immediately collapsed, once again, staring up at the ceiling.  


“I’ve heard stories about how you were injured,” the woman continued. “People who came to visit like to mutter amongst themselves… but didn’t realize I was listening in, I suppose.”  


“People?” I managed, my voice incredibly raspy.  


“Yeah, multiple. Guess I should feel a little awed to share a room with someone the Sun King pays a personal visit to… but I’m mainly curious.”  


Sun King… he’d been here?  


“W-when?” I managed.  


“Days ago, now.”  


My eyes suddenly widened as my head whipped around toward the other woman.  


“ _Days?_ ”  


“You’ve been in and out of consciousness for almost a week.”  


But… no… she couldn’t be right…  


“Sometimes I’d hear you muttering and think you were finally awake, only for you to stop and go back to sleeping a few moments later,” the woman continued. “So, if you don’t mind me asking, who are you, and why is it apparently your sole duty to save the world?”  


My heart pounded in my ears as I swallowed forcefully.  


Apparently I had been muttering quite the stories while I was half-unconscious.  


“I can start, if it makes you feel more relaxed,” the other woman offered.  


Finally, after I said nothing, still, she sighed, hanging her head slightly before looking back over at me.  


“My name is Talanah Khane Padish,” she said, lifting her hand to place it on her chest, only to reveal the first sign of her true injuries.  


Her right hand was well-wrapped in bandages, and I could see that those over her palm and the back of her hand were faintly stained red.  


“I’m a Hawk in the Hunter’s Lodge, here, and when all of the commotion started in the city shortly before those cultists and their machines arrived, I immediately volunteered to help,” she continued. “I would be too ashamed of failing my father and brother, if I hadn’t.”  


Silence fell over us for several, long moments, before she cleared her throat, letting her hand fall back into her lap as she stared back at me.  


“Your turn.”  


I let out a short, dry laugh that quickly turned into a coughing fit, but Talanah smirked all the same. When I had finally calmed down, once again, I took a deep breath, turning my head back toward her.  


“I’m Aloy,” I offered.  


“Just Aloy?”  


“Is just Aloy not enough?”  


Talanah let out a quiet laugh, shaking her head.  


“No, it’s fine… I guess I just expected there to be a bigger name or a story to go with someone who seems so important.”  


My jaw worked silently for several moments before she sighed.  


“It’s no matter, Aloy,” she said. “It’s nice to finally meet you.”  


We fell into silence for several long moments before I cleared my throat, bringing her attention back to me.  


“You injured your hand?”  


I nodded slightly in her direction and she lifted her right hand from her lap, once again.  


“This? Yeah, to some extent,” she said. “They didn’t keep me in here because of that, though.”  


She gripped the sheet draped over her from the waist down with her good hand, throwing it aside to reveal that her left leg was wrapped in bandages, as well. A wooden splint also ran from her thigh to her calf, held in place by some of the bandages.  


“Got thrown by a Strider. Like an idiot, when it came at me, I tried to grab onto part of it to swing myself out of the way… guess I forgot it was covered in corruption. Burned my hand pretty badly, hence the bandages,” she sighed, bringing the sheet back over herself. “Anyway, when I landed, I heard something in my leg crack and the pain told me I wasn’t going anywhere fast on it in the near future.”  


I grimaced slightly and she laughed.  


“It doesn’t hurt as much now. Janna made sure of that.”  


I raised my eyebrows slightly and she gestured to a small wooden bowl on the same table as the candle between us.  


“The pain medicine works wonders,” she said. “You should know all about that.”  


My lips pulled into a thin line as I shifted stiffly beneath my own sheet.  


“I can’t stand feeling so helpless, and… stuck,” I spat.  


“Well, you’re getting your voice back now, at least,” Talanah shrugged. “What happened to you to land you here?”  


I breathed deeply through my nose as I turned to stare up at the ceiling.  


“If you don’t want to talk about it—”  


“I got caught under a Strider a few weeks ago, clawed by a Sawtooth across my back not long after, and got the shock of my life fighting on the Alight.”  


When I finally turned back to Talanah, I found her staring back at me with a look somewhere between impressed and shocked.  


“And to think some of the Hawks in the Lodge call themselves hardened,” she finally said, shaking her head. “I don’t know if it was luck or your ‘Goddess’ watching over you but—”  


“My ‘goddess?’”  


She paused, staring back at me curiously.  


“You’re a Nora, right?”  


I shifted uncomfortably.  


“Not exactly.”  


Her confusion didn’t seem to wane, but she remained silent.  


“How did you know?”  


“Your clothes, your spear, and your hair,” she replied. “I’ve seen a few excommunicated Nora in my time, and I could pick them out by the hairstyles alone, at this point.”  


I nodded slowly, self-consciously reaching toward my hair and feeling that it was still braided, although I could also feel the dirt and oil caked into it and squirmed slightly.  


“I’ve never seen any with a color like yours, though.”  


A smirk tugged at my lips as my gaze focused on Talanah, once again.  


“I’m special.”  


She let out a snort as I laughed softly.  


“You’ve got a better sense of humor than most of them, too.”  


“It goes with not exactly being a Nora.”  


“So what are you, then?”  


I chewed the inside of my cheek for a few moments before focusing my gaze on her face, her eyebrows raised slightly in anticipation.  


“I’m not exactly anything, even if the Nora try to claim me as theirs,” I finally said. “I guess I’m Aloy, despite the Nora… I’m Aloy Sobeck.”  


Talanah’s eyebrows raised even farther as she shifted her position stiffly.  


“And what does that mean?”  


My jaw clenched as my fingers tightened around the bedsheet, the now-familiar ache rising in my arms and hands, once again.  


“It means I have a purpose tied to the Old Ones… and it’s not done, yet.”  


Talanah’s expression was somewhere between impressed and amused as she nodded slowly.  


Our conversation was cut short by the door on the far side of the room creaking open, the familiar face of the healer woman appearing around it.  


“Ah, I see the two of you are finally awake at the same time,” she commented, opening the door wider and stepping inside, “and making fast friends.”  


“It’s just who I am,” Talanah said, smirking.  


“How’s the pain?” the healer asked, stopping between our two beds.  


“Manageable.”  


“Well, it’s not been more than half a day since I gave you more pain solution, so hopefully it stays that way for a bit longer,” she nodded, turning her gaze to me. “Now, how about you, miss?”  


I tried to shrug, but the motion brought a grimace to my face as pain shot across my back and shoulders. The expression only elicited a heavy sigh from the healer.  


“By the sun, girl, you’re held together by sheer willpower alone, at this point.”  


She had no idea…  


“You can have some more pain solution, if you’d like.”  


“No!” I said, perhaps a little too quickly, drawing a raised eyebrow from the healer.  


“Has it been making you sick?”  


“N-no, but…”  


She sighed, folding her arms over her chest as she faced me.  


“I am not trying to hold you here against your will,” she said, “but I do want you to get better. I wish you would see that.”  


I swallowed heavily, trying to push down the strange, churning emotions in my chest. There was definitely fear in there, mainly that I would be stuck here for weeks on end, but also anger, mainly at myself.  


“I want to get back on my feet,” I finally said.  


“And that will take time.”  


I opened my mouth to speak but she raised a finger to silence me.  


“Don’t you dare say that you don’t have any,” she chided. “From what I understand, those cultists are in firm disarray, and the soldiers even talk that all sightings of the ancient machines have been of them in a dormant state. The world is not ending, anymore, Miss Sobeck.”  


My eyes suddenly widened as I stared back at the healer, only to find that her face was even more familiar than before; she still had dark skin, rounded face that seemed both aged and wise and youthful and lively simultaneously, green-brown hazel eyes, and long, dark hair tied into a loose braid, but the more I tried to place it, the more I began to realize that her clothing seemed to emit an odd, glittering light. My mouth hung open slightly as the image of the woman moved over to my bedside, slowly leaning down toward me until her face was only a foot or so away, an amused smile on her face.  


“You have done well,” she said softly. “Allow yourself a moment to rest.”  


My lips moved in the shape of the name that had suddenly appeared at the tip of my tongue, but no actual sound came as the woman’s expression changed to a softer smile. She slowly reached one hand toward me, running the back of it along the side of my face.  


“I always knew you would, though.”  


My mouth and throat had gone dry as the woman pulled her hand away from my face, but remained bent over beside my bed.  


“In you, all things are possible.”  


“G-G…?”  


A moment later, I blinked and she was gone, although I noticed that the far wall had changed colors from the dark brown of earlier to a near glowing orange. I blinked rapidly, but the scene did not change, once again, nor did the woman return.  


“Oh, hey there.”  


My head whipped around to my right to find Talanah sitting up in bed, holding a wooden bowl in her lap as she popped some kind of fruit into her mouth.  


“You know, it’s rude to just nod off mid-conversation like that.”  


“O-oh,” I stammered, my throat feeling like I had inhaled a desert’s worth of sand. “I… didn’t…”  


“It’s fine,” the other woman laughed. “I figured you needed it.”  


“H-how long?”  


“Only the night, don’t worry.”  


I nodded, stiffly shifting my position on the bed. The sensation of a warm, gentle touch gliding across the side of my face still lingered, yet no matter how much I reassured myself it had been a dream, I still found myself subconsciously reaching up to feel the spot.  


“Grape?”  


I paused, turning to look over at Talanah and finding her holding the bowl out toward me. My eyebrows raised slightly as she grinned.  


“Guess neither of us is gonna get up, huh?”  


I shook my head at her and she laughed, pulling the bowl back away from me.  


“Janna left you a bowl, too, if you want,” she added, nodding toward the table that held the candle, as well.  


I followed her gesture and noticed a similar wooden bowl close to the edge nearest me.  


“You should eat something if you want to get your strength back,” she continued. “You can’t start murdering gods again if you’re stuck in a bed forever.”  


“I won’t be,” I shot back quickly, my hands clenching into fists around the sheets draped over me.  


I finally managed to summon the strength to put weight on my arms, groaning slightly as I managed to push myself into a seated position, supported by the wall against my shoulders and the pillows of the bed against my lower back. Once I was settled, I let out a heavy sigh, looking back over at Talanah, whose expression had changed to simply impressed.  


“Whether Janna likes it or not, I’m getting back on my feet within the next day.”  


Talanah shook her head, laughing softly.  


“You have no shortage of spirit, that’s for sure,” she said.  


A smirk tugged at my lips.  


“You have no idea…”  


She gave me an odd look, but brushed it off a moment later as she tossed another grape into her mouth.  


“So, Aloy Sobeck, what’s next for you once you walk out of here tomorrow night?”  


We both laughed softly for a moment before I let out a sigh, clenching my fingers into fists before relaxing them over and over.  


“There’s somewhere I need to go… somewhere far away…”  


“Sounds like an adventure.”  


“Of a lifetime.”  


Talanah gave me a look with a raised eyebrow, holding a grape paused halfway to her mouth.  


“Potentially dangerous?”  


“Guaranteed.”  


“End of the world stakes?”  


“Possibly.”  


“Will it involve killing big machines?”  


“Most likely.”  


“Need a partner?”  


I raised my eyebrows at her.  


“You volunteering?”  


Talanah grinned, quickly tossing the grape in her fingers in her mouth before tapping the top of her left leg with her free hand.  


“How about this: we both work on getting out of here as soon as possible, and if we do at the same time, or if I get out before you, I come along for your adventure. Deal?”  


Our gazes met for several long moments as my grin only grew wider. Finally, I let out a short laugh, nodding slowly.  


“Deal.”  


Talanah smirked, reaching for another grape in her bowl.  


“So, what’s so special about this place that’s so dangerous and far away?”  


My hands tightened into fists around my sheets, as the feeling of a warm hand on the side of my face briefly appeared, once again.  


“I lost something that belongs to me… and I need to get it back.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Singularity_ is coming. See y'all next week.


	31. Epilogue/Author's Note

Hey y'all!

I did this last time for _Duality_ , too, so I wanted to do it again, just in case, for _Binary_.

I want to thank everyone who read this fic, from those who followed from Day 1 to those who jumped on later, or to those from here into the future who read it all in one go. Each person who reads and enjoys this in any small part, whether you comment or leave a kudos or not, means a lot to me. So if you're reading this message, thank you. If you for some reason skipped right to this chapter instead of reading any of the others... I'd recommend reading the preceding 30 of them. They're probably far more interesting.

Anyhoo, one of the main points of this little note is that there's a sequel to _Binary_! It's called _Singularity_ and you can find it [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19815091/chapters/46916707).

This chapter is for those who bookmarked this particular fic, but not the series, so it'll hopefully be a little easier to find the next one, or at least make you aware that there is one, if you weren't already aware!

That's pretty much it for this one, though. I'll see you over at _Singularity_ every Monday, like usual.

Peace.


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